October 19, 2025 | Tchaikovsky Concert Hall
13th Moscow music festival «Vladimir Spivakov Invites»
Soloists: Anna Aglatova, soprano
Evgeniya Kurova, soprano
Anna Nemzer, mezzo
Angelina Zelenskaya, mezzo
Academic Grand Choir «Masters of Choral Singing»
Conductor — Vladimir Spivakov
Jenkins. Requiem
The Vladimir Spivakov Invites... Moscow Festival will go on with the performance of Requiem by Karl Jenkins. The Welsh composer is well known as the author of works merging academic and popular music. One of his main ideas is peacemaking, all-encompassing love for humankind. He thinks it possible to write universal music that would be connected with its earthly roots and at the same time ascend into heaven. Such music should make people more friendly and understanding.
Requiem, written in 2005, is an amazing example of interweaving Western and Oriental traditions. Jenkins dedicated it to the memory of his father. To the usual movements of a Catholic Mass he added, following Fauré and Duruflé, Pie Jesu and In Paradisum, and put into the liturgical Latin text lyrical Japanese verses haiku on love and death. The Requiem score is written for an unusual group of soloists (soprano, treble, Japanese flute shakuhachi and harp) while the orchestra also includes darbuka, taiko and other exotic instruments.
The Russian premiere of Requiem took place on January 27, 2019, at the closing of the Christmas Festival at the Moscow International Performing Arts Center. Vladimir Spivakov presented it with the Grand Academic Choir «Masters of Choral Singing» and the NPR, the soprano was the Bolshoi’s star Anna Aglatova, while the harp and flute parts were played by the NPR soloists Ilona Nokelainen and Sergei Zhuravel. Later on Requiem was recorded and in winter of 2024 appeared on streaming platforms. It will now be played with the same soloists and the choir.