January 23, 2026 | Moscow Performing Arts Center, Svetlanov Hall
16th Christmas Festival od Sacred Music. Closing Concert
Soloist
Anna Aglatova, soprano
Polina Shamaeva, mezzo-soprano
Alexei Neklyudov, tenor
Igor Podoplelov, baritone
Academic Grand Choir "Masters of Choral Singing"
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Mozart. Requiem, KV 626
On January 23, the Moscow Performing Arts Center will close the 16th edition of the Christmas Music Festival which is held with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Rus' and supported by the Moscow Department of Culture. The festival, timed to the Christmas Festivities, has been taking place annually since 2011 under the artistic direction of Vladimir Spivakov. It is one of the top projects of the Center, which brings to its audiences masterworks of Christian musical culture of various epochs, best performers and choral ensembles. The highest point of each festival edition is invariably its final night with Vladimir Spivakov.
Completing the festival on January 23, Vladimir Spivakov will offer his interpretation of Mozart's famous Requiem, the immortal masterpiece of funeral mass. The composer wrote the Requiem commissioned by Franz von Walsegg-Stuppach but did not complete the score, which was later made by his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr, though he was not the only one who took part in finalizing it. Disputes about the authorship of various movements have not lost their actuality even now. But it goes without saying that the Requiem with its sublime beauty and architectonic coherence belongs to the outstanding works of musical classicism and greatest monuments of world music culture.