Herbsttag (Jour d'automne)

This six-minute madrigal setting was commissioned by the renowned Hanover Girls' Choir and composed on the basis of one of Rainer Maria Rilke's profound poems. It begins as a thanksgiving prayer: for the summer, for the autumn fruits. But the first winds bring along the fear of the cold and loneliness of winter: 'Whoever is alone now will remain so for a long time, will stay up, read, write long letters…'.
Peter Eötvös lets the poem unfold twice, each time in a different way, thus intensifying the reflection. The tonality is treated freely, and the choral setting extends the underlying five-part texture, in which the choir's soloists create striking echoes, up to eight-part passages.