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- John Tavener
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (2012)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
- 0000/0.0.1+btbn.0/timp.perc/pf/str
- Bass Baritone, Cello
- 25 min
- Leo Tolstoy
Programme Note
“If one wants to be heard, one must speak out from the top of Golgotha,
affirm the truth by suffering, and better yet by death.”
The Death of Ivan Ilyich – a monodrama for bass-baritone, solo cello, two trombones, percussion and strings, – came to me after a long illness. It was one of the first major works that I composed after that time, as though Tolstoy himself was waking me from a long creative sleep. The text is taken from one of Tolstoy’s last and greatest novels. The story of a dying man’s excruciating physical pain and his emotional and spiritual crisis is composed architecturally in an intense and terse manner. A glimpse of light occurs towards the end of the piece, after Ivan Ilyich has examined his miserable life. The work ends with an instrumental Apotheosis.
J.T.
affirm the truth by suffering, and better yet by death.”
The Death of Ivan Ilyich – a monodrama for bass-baritone, solo cello, two trombones, percussion and strings, – came to me after a long illness. It was one of the first major works that I composed after that time, as though Tolstoy himself was waking me from a long creative sleep. The text is taken from one of Tolstoy’s last and greatest novels. The story of a dying man’s excruciating physical pain and his emotional and spiritual crisis is composed architecturally in an intense and terse manner. A glimpse of light occurs towards the end of the piece, after Ivan Ilyich has examined his miserable life. The work ends with an instrumental Apotheosis.
J.T.
Media
Tavener: The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Scores
Preview the score
Reviews
'...a coruscatingly fearless and compressed dramatisation of Tolstoy's novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich...a piece whose toughness, terseness, and final, hard-won image of transcendence makes it among Tavener's finest achievements.'
27th December 2013
The agonies of the terminally ill Ilyich, desperate for sympathy but unable to accept it, [...] and the eventual emergence of consolation from the initial mood of unyielding sternness was beautifully captured.
9th July 2013
A brutally dark monodrama based on Tolstoy's short story The Death of Ivan Ilyich. [...] If Tavener's life's work has been a journey towards beatific light, this piece indicates he has no intention of going gently.
8th July 2013
A picturesque and disturbing piece of 30 minutes, it opens broodingly with lower strings and trombone, bringing in percussion before rising in highly agitated strings. Shattering climaxes subside into reflective phases as a man on his death-bed copes with troubled thoughts and extreme pain.
8th July 2013
Discography
No longer mourn for me & other works for cello
- LabelHyperion
- Catalogue NumberCDA68246
- ConductorOmer Meir Wellber
- EnsemblePhilharmonia Orchestra
- SoloistSteven Isserlis
- Released30th October 2020
