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Programme Note

Thrinos (Lament) for solo cello was composed late in 1990, for Stephen Isserlis. The title, Tavener writes, 'has both liturgical and folk significance in Greece - the Thrinos of the Mother of God sung at the Epitaphios on Good Friday and the Thrinos of mourning which is chanted over the dead body on the house of a close friend.' Tavener wrote his Thrinos to commemorate the death of a close friend.
Michael Stewart