About the creation

Elegy for viola and piano (or viola and string orchestra) was written in 1954 and exists also in other version: for clarinet and piano, or clarinet and string quartet or string orchestra.

The work is written in the form of a poem in five stanzas. Each stanza open with a variation on the interval of a third - which is the basic interval of the work - and develops into a free melodic recitative. The last stanza serves as an epilogue.

The viola part was edited (fingering and bowing) by the Israeli violist Daniel Benyamini.