String Symphony
String Symphony No. 1
Vespera: Memoria Lucis
“Evening: Memory of Light.” A string symphony by Lera Auerbach.
Commission
Commissioned by New Century Chamber Orchestra.
Title
Vespera: Memoria Lucis. Evening: Memory of Light.
World Premiere
23 May 2013. Berkeley, California — New Century Chamber Orchestra.
Form
Single symphonic span
- A concentrated string-orchestra work in one continuous architecture.
- The first in Auerbach’s cycle of string symphonies on light.
- Vespera evokes evening, afterglow, memory and the persistence of light after disappearance.
Work Information
Symphonic World
Vespera: Memoria Lucis opens the world of Auerbach’s string symphonies as a meditation on light after its departure. The title suggests evening not simply as an ending, but as the hour in which light becomes inward: remembered, refracted and carried by the imagination.
Written for string orchestra, the work belongs to Auerbach’s larger poetic constellation of works concerned with memory, illumination, fragility and spiritual afterimage. Its language is concentrated and luminous, shaped by the tensile expressive power of strings alone.
The piece can stand as an independent concert work while also forming the first part of a broader cycle: a sequence of string symphonies tracing different states of light across time, darkness, dawn and day.
Publisher and Materials
Published by Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski. Score and rental materials are available through Zinfonia.