Duo (after Ossip Mandelstam) refers to a short poem from his 1910 collection Kamen (Stone), which underlies my piece: not only is this poem its epigraph, it is also quoted metrically throughout in the instrumental texture. Here are the first lines of the English translation: Ears stretch sensitive sails, dilated eyes lose fire, over the silence swims the night-birds’ soundless choir. Even though a translation may give some idea of the images, I doubt that it conveys the respiration of this poem,...

I Choro – II Con moto, leggero – III Adagietto