About this work:
Symphony No. 3 is in the traditional four-movement format, but here the tradition ends. The opening is a rather brash, aggressive motto perpetuo, the only fast movement in the work, with obsessive, repeated rhythms. The Slavic sounding melody of the second subject reappears throughout the other movements in several disguises, not necessarily as a leitmotive, but as a memory of things past. The opening is in the simple a-b-a format, while the rest of the movements are rhapsodic.
The second movement opens with a long cello line, which builds in a dark climate using the minimal diatonic interval, a semitone, sometimes broken across octaves. A haunting high violin line intercedes, like a voice from afar. it leads to succeeding interludes that have a feeling of unresolved conflict, ending quietly and questioningly.
The third movement is also a fantasy or rhapsody like the previous one, but very different in character. It opens quietly, soon followed by anxious, anguished sounds. It is interrupted by a sad, cryptic waltz, which keeps returning obsessively. Eventually it gives up, and the movement ends in resignation.
The finale is perhaps the main reason for the subtitle. After a short introduction, again based on the second motive of the first movement, it changes character, leading to a repeated drone, like a passacaglia, serving as the backdrop for a distant voice, a disembodied sound, wordless and mystical. Echoes of that same recurrent second motive from the first movement make their final ghostly appearances, hidden under the string ostinato. It seems to have an outer-worldly character. The French subtitle may seem an affectation, but in fact it sounds better in French. Also, it was written for a French orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre National de Toulouse, which suggested the title during the recording sessions.