Heller, Barbara: Lalai

Schlaflied zum Wachwerden?

In this composition Barbara Heller uses the song Lalai created in Tehran in 1973. It is a song of resistance against the Shah regime and is about a mother who sings a lullaby to her child and tells the story of its father. Based on this song, Barbara Heller composed the duo 'Lalai, Schlaflied zum Wachwerden?' for violin (violoncello) and piano in 1989 - in memory of 50 Iranian women who were murdered under the regime of Khomeini. Lalai is now published in an orchestral version for the first time. Tina Ternes has sensitively orchestrated the charmingly simple folk tune and the desperate cries for help from Lalai with a great sense of detail. The vigorous, angry solos of the violin were instrumented for strings, woodwinds and brass and turned into powerful sound blocks which take turns with melancholy, freely floating passages. The soft melody of the piano part is played by the woodwinds, accompanied by minimalist pizzicato figures of the strings. An impressive work of emotional depth.