Akhmatova requiem contains:
01. Requiem
02. Dedication
03. Introduction
04. -
05. -
06. -
07. -
08. -
09. -
10. The Sentence
11. To Death
12. -
13. -Crucifixion
14. -
15. -
16. -
17. Epilogue I
18. Epilogue II
Source: | booklet of cd BBC 15656 91972 |
♫ 01. Requiem
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 02. Dedication
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 03. Introduction
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 04.-
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 05.-
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 06. -
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 07. -
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 08. -
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 09. -
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 10. The Sentence
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 11. To Death
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 12. -
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 13. Crucifixion
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 14. -
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 15. -
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 16. -
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 17. Epilogue I
© BBC 15656 91972
♫ 18. Epilogue II
© BBC 15656 91972
Composed in 1981, the requiem sets anguished verses of the Stalin years by the great Russian poet, interspersed with Orthodox funeral texts, and is one of the finest of all Tavener's works. Bleak yet offering the possibility of eternal peace, the work is a harrowing yet ultimately consoling statement. Duration: 50'.
Source: | www.recordsinternational.com
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Requiem (the text of Tavener's 1981-requiem) is a poem written by Anna Akhmatova (ps. of Anna Andreyevna Gorenko: 1889 - 1966) over several years (1935-40). Akhmatova was afraid to keep a copy (because the communists would arrest her) so she wrote it on small scraps of paper; then she memorized each part as it was written. Her friends also memorized the parts from her scraps of paper; thus the poem was preserved in their memories until she was finally able to write it down in 1954 after Stalin's death. This is a brief outline of the poem:
• Lines 1-4 serve as a "frame" for the rest of the poem. The lines state that Akhmatova, the speaker of the poem, was "with [her] people" when "The Great Terror" began. Stalin's police arrested millions of Russians who were then executed or sent to Siberian prison camps. Many of her countrymen fled the Soviet Union but she had chosen to stay.
• INSTEAD OF A PREFACE describes the main situation of the poem: she and hundreds of other women waiting in long lines outside the prison in Leningrad. Akhmatova's son, Lev, was imprisoned there; he was guilty of no crime but was seen as a potential "enemy of the state" because his father (who had been executed in 1921) and his mother were suspected by Stalin of opposing the Communist regime. She and the other women waited on line every day in order to give their loved ones a loaf of bread or other sustenance in the hope of keeping them alive. Akhmatova then explains, in the last lines of "Instead of a Preface," her reason for writing this poem: because she is a poet, she must bear witness to what is happening. The voice of the poem will express emotions that are not only her own; she will attempt to speak for all the Russian mothers.
• DEDICATION explains that the poet is dedicating her work --- and her suffering --- to all the women like her who have been overcome by grief. She is speaking for these women, recognizing the solitariness that their suffering has imposed on them.
• PROLOGUE begins the actual cycle of poems. A sense of the time period is created: only the dead are able to smile.
• 1 : Refers to Akhmatova's husband, arrested in 1935. She says she will keep screaming with her grief.
• 2: The "Don" refers to a major river in Russia. The husband mentioned in the poem is Akhmatova's first husband, arrested and executed in 1921. (They had been divorced but were still friends. He was the father of her only son.)
• 3 : She can't believe that it's she who is experiencing this grief. It can't be real -- but it is.
• 4: The "mocker" and "gay little sinner" refer to herself when she was young and happy, never dreaming of what the future would hold.
• 5-6: She refers to her son, arrested 17 months earlier. She can't understand why this has happened; she fears he will be executed as his father was. The footnote explains "white nights."
• 7. THE SENTENCE : Read footnote #13. Now that she knows the worst, she feels she must be active again.
• 8. TO DEATH and 9 : She passes through two more stages of suffering which involve a prayer for death and then the approach of madness. She can think no longer about her son; she must give up her memories as madness overwhelms her.
• 10.1 and 10.2. CRUCIFIXION : She envisions the three figures at the foot of the cross on which Christ was crucified -- Mary, John, and Mary Magdalene. They each depict a different type of suffering (or a way of dealing with suffering).
• EPILOGUE I: Now she has become one with Mary, the Mother of Christ, and all the mothers who have lost their sons. She describes what suffering has done to her and to them.
• EPILOGUE II: Read footnote. She says that "remembrance" is not a consolation, simply an angry refusal to forget what has happened. She will not allow monuments to be created in beautiful places; the only acceptable monument is one that will be an everlasting memorial to the horror.
Source: | http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/vpoulakis/akhmatovawiesel.htm
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