Eterniday. Hommage à W. A. Mozart

“I sketched the full work in late August - early September 2009 and left the manuscript on top of my Steinway concert grand in my studio in New York before leaving for a tour. I planned to finish it when I returned from the tour in December. While I was away, there was a devastating electrical fire in my studio which burnt down the entire apartment including the Steinway and everything that was around it. The manuscript of the new work was gone. I tried to remember what I had written, but soon gave up any hopes to resurrect it, the creative impulse behind this work was gone, and without my manuscript to guide me back I lost the sense of what this work was to me. So I decided to start anew and to write a different piece altogether. Even the instrumentation of the work changed - instead of a full chamber orchestra as was in my original sketch - now it was down to bass drum, celesta and strings.
The principal string players have extensive solos in a concerto grosso style - sometimes they are part of the orchestra, at other times they have clearly personal statements. The resulting piece is very intimate, with extremely detailed writing, often with multiple simultaneous dynamic layers. Strings are divided most of the time into three different voices: three first violins, including solo, three second violins and so on.
’Eterniday’ is an original word, combining Eternity and Day, something everlasting and fragile, yet blended together into one. Because of the child-Mozart's connection to Koblenz, where the premiere of Eterniday is scheduled, and because of my personal experience with Mozart's early works (I have recorded all his keyboard pieces written between ages 5 and 9), the thought of a young Mozart was in my mind and somehow became a subtle presence in this work, perhaps a guardian-angel of Eterniday.”
The work is dedicated to Daniel Raiskin."
(Lera Auerbach)