Against the war

© Vasily Vereshchagin - The Apotheosis of War (1871)

We are living in turbulent times: war is closer than we would like, peace more fragile than we thought.

This four-part program is a reflection on global unrest. In the first part of the concert, war takes center stage, with the confronting Berliner Requiem by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht as its focal point. Afterwards, hope begins to emerge, and the longing for peace resounds in several breathtaking choral works.

Against the War is a thematic concert that feels painfully relevant today.

After a prologue with L’histoire du soldat by Igor Stravinsky, Part 1 focuses on the brutality of war, its incomprehensible barbarity and mercilessness.

Part 2 zooms in on the inevitable consequences of derailed ideologies and blind hunger for power through the performance of Kurt Weill’s incomparable Berliner Requiem. Part 3 seeks to let a glimmer of hope shine through all the horror, including through Arnold Schönberg’s ethereal choral work Friede auf Erden.

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• Program

  Prologue:

  • Igor Stravinsky – L’histoire du soldat (trio version) 

  War:

  • Kurt Weill – Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen

  • Hans Eisler – Kriegskantate

  • Kurt Weill – Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen

  • Hans Eisler – Römische Kantate

  • Kurt Weill – Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen 

  Death and destruction:

  • Kurt Weill – Berliner Requiem

  • Rudolf Mauersberger – Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst

  Peace:

  • Arnold Schönberg – Friede auf Eerden

  • Kurt Hessenberg – Ach, Herr, mache mich zum Werkzeug deiner Friede 

• Credits

  Conductor: Yuval Weinberg
  Musicians: I SOLISTI & Chorwerk Ruhr
  Soloists: Lore Binon (soprano), Jan Michiels (piano), Shirly Laub (violin), Benjamin Dieltjens (clarinet), Aram Van Ballaert (banjo/guitar)

  Production: I SOLISTI & Chorwerk Ruhr
  Co-production: Perpodium 
  

  Produced with the support of the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter incentive through Flanders Tax Shelter.

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