Program
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)
Requiem in E minor for soloists, choir and orchestra (1874)
Zarina Abaeva, soprano
Andrey Nemzer, countertenor
Alexey Tatarintsev, tenor
Alexey Tikhomirov, bass
musicAeterna Choir and Orchestra
Conductor – Teodor Currentzis
Details
The most famous funeral mass after Mozart’s Requiem was called “an opera in church clothes” already in the 19th century. Verdi’s Requiem is still heard mainly in theatre and concert halls. However, the author himself intended this composition to be performed in church, and on special occasions.
Performed by soloists and musicAeterna choir and orchestra, Verdi’s Requiem seems to return from the concert stage into the temple space. The seven parts of the Requiem become steps on the way to comprehending the sacrament of death, the operatic character of orchestral and vocal writing acquires the strictness of the Catholic tradition, and musical images of rage, despair, and rebellion against the inevitable end are crowned with appeasement.