Lamentation Ode to Margaret Geddes (Trauer-Ode für Margaret Geddes)

World premiere October 19th, 1997

Kronberg · Stadthalle
soloists of the Cello-Festival

Musical director and 1st Violoncello Mstislaw Rostropowitsch

This piece is intended to be an obituary for an admired and beloved friend, the Princess Margaret of Hesse and the Rhine. It is written like a six part motet and reflects pain, loss and mourning. In the center part appears Johann Sebastian Bach's comforting choral „Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn“ surrounded by the elegiac counterparts of my own music.

Hans Werner Henze