Dmitri N Smirnov

Eternal Refuge for voice and piano trio Dmitri N Smirnov

ETERNAL REFUGE for voice (mezzo-soprano or baritone) and piano trio, text in Russian by Mikhail Bulgakov from the novel "The Master and Margarita" (the openning of the chapter No. 32 "Mercy and Eternal Refuge"), Op. 10a (Version 3 May 2002, St Albans, UK), 9'. Premiere: 14 Jan 2003, Musikverein, Brahms Hall, Vienna, Wolfgang Holzmair (baritone) & Altenberg Trio Re-reading the novel "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov I suddenly discovered for myself an astonishing fragment of prose that sounded as greatest poetry (here in my translation): "Gods, o my Gods! How sad is the evening earth! How mysterious are the mists over the swamps! He who wandered in those mists, who greatly suffered before dying, who soared over this earth, carrying an unbearable burden-he knows this. The tired man knows this well. And he without regret leaves the mists of the earth, its swamps and rivers. He, with an unburdened heart, gives himself into the hands of death, knowing that death alone will comfort him." I completed my setting of these words for voice percussion, organ and string orchestra in a couple of days, 15 May 1972, and presented the score to Elena Firsova, my colleague and future wife to whom I dedicated it. Since that time I returned to the piece quite a few times, rearranging and re-orchestrating it for different casts of players. The version of 1981 was premiered 31 January 1982, Philharmonic Hall in Tula, with Irina Muratova (soprano), Yuri Nikolajevski (conductor) and the next evening repeated in Moscow at the House of composers. The vocal score printed by Sovetsky Kompozitor Publishers, Moscow, 1990 in the collection "Vocal Symphonic Works" Vol. 2. Here is another version: for voice and piano trio completed 3 May 2002 in St Albans, UK.