John Tavener - Thrinos, for solo cello, performed by Steven Isserlis on Good Friday 2020

Thrinos (Lament) for solo cello was composed late in 1990, for Steven 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.