For orchestra
Eve’s Lament
O Flowers, That Never Will Grow
A thirteen-minute orchestral lament by Lera Auerbach: a fragile, luminous meditation on loss, unborn beauty, and the impossible garden after exile.
Commission
Co-commissioned by ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the Netherlands Broadcasting Organization AVROTROS as part of Stichting Omroep Muziek, and Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft. With additional funds by The Sorel Organization in loving memory of Judy Cope.
World Premiere
24 October 2019. Konzerthaus, Vienna — ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, conducted by Marin Alsop.
The Work
Eve’s Lament “O Flowers, That Never Will Grow” belongs to Auerbach’s orchestral world of memory, catastrophe, tenderness, and metaphysical image. The title speaks from the edge of absence: a lament not only for what has died, but for what will never be born.
The sound world is unusually delicate and spectral, placing orchestral color in dialogue with ondes Martenot, harp, percussion, strings, and fragile metallic sonorities. The result is not a grand public lament but something more intimate: grief heard through silver, breath, water, and light.
Work Information
Abbreviations PDF
Sound World
The instrumentation gives the piece a distinctive aura: bird-whistle, water-gong, aquaphone, ondes Martenot, harp, and refined percussion colors sit within an orchestral frame that is both fragile and intensely expressive.
- Eve The figure of Eve becomes a voice of origin, exile, and lament.
- Flowers The title turns absence into an image of impossible growth.
- Ondes Martenot The instrument gives the orchestral surface an otherworldly human vibration.
- Water Water-gong and aquaphone extend the lament into an elemental space.
Critical Response
Der Standard described the work as “fragile, floating, delicately gleaming.”
Wiener Zeitung called it “bitter-sweet,” “suggestive and touching.”
Online Materials
Publisher, rental, catalogue and listening references for Lera Auerbach’s Eve’s Lament “O Flowers, That Never Will Grow”.
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Video / ListeningVimeo · Embedded performance
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PublisherBoosey & Hawkes / Sikorski Work Page Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski
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Rental MaterialScore and Rental Material Zinfonia
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CatalogueFull Catalogue LeraAuerbach.com
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ReferenceStandard Abbreviations PDF Boosey & Hawkes
Publisher and Materials
Eve’s Lament “O Flowers, That Never Will Grow” is published by Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski. Score and rental materials are available through the official publisher and Zinfonia links.
