Mozart’s Requiem in tribute to Chopin
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
17.10.2015 12:42
Saturday marks the 166th anniversary of the death of Fryderyk Chopin.
The interior of the Holy Cross church in central Warsaw. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
In line with a long-standing tradition, the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw - the one in which the composer’s heart is placed - is the venue of a performance of Mozart’s Requiem.
The programme refers to Chopin’s funeral mass at St Madeleine’s Church in Paris in 1849 during which, according to the composer’s wish, Mozart’s masterpiece was performed.
Saturday's concert will be given by the Choir and Orchestra of the Warsaw Philharmonic under its Music Director Jacek Kaspszyk, with foreign soloists Lenneke Ruiten (soprano), Ingeborg Danz (alto), Robert Getchell (tenor) and Matthew Brook (bass).
Polish-born composer Chopin died at 2 a.m. on 17 October 1849, with his sister Ludwika and Solange, the daughter of George Sand, at his bedside.
He was buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris on 30 October. Five days earlier, the poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid wrote, in an obituary in Dziennik Polski: “A Varsovian by birth, a Pole at heart and by his talent a citizen of the world”. (mk/rg/rk)