The opening concert will feature works by two composers whose music reflects profound human emotions as well as historical upheavals. Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, in his Stabat Mater, blends minimalism with the spiritual depth of medieval liturgy, while Dmitri Shostakovich, in his Sixth Symphony, offers an ironic and chillingly truthful portrayal of life under Soviet dictatorship.

Arvo Pärt
Stabat Mater

Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54

Warsaw Philharmonic Choir
Bartosz Michałowski – choirmaster and artistic director
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Daniel Raiskin – conductor

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is widely regarded as one of the most significant and distinctive voices in contemporary music. His compositions draw deeply from the rich and ancient traditions of Christian spirituality. By blending minimalism with elements of Gregorian chant and medieval polyphony, Pärt creates a uniquely mystical atmosphere.

At this opening concert, taking place on the very day of the composer’s 90th birthday, we will hear his Stabat Mater for mixed choir and string orchestra, composed in 1985. In setting this medieval hymn, a sequence from the Easter liturgy that meditates on the suffering and sorrow of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the Cross, Pärt envisioned a collision of opposites, comparing it to “volcanic lava and water,” where anguish and consolation intertwine. The choral parts will be performed by one of Europe’s most sought-after ensembles, the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6, completed in 1939 on the eve of World War II, reflects the shadows of Stalinist purges and political repression. In the years preceding, Shostakovich had been publicly condemned by Soviet critics for his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Torn between the demands of loyalty to communist ideology and the call of his own conscience, Shostakovich channelled this internal struggle into his music. With its darkly dramatic, dizzying, and at times grotesquely distorted expression, the Sixth Symphony stands as a brilliant and ironic commentary on the terrifying contradictions of life under Stalin’s rule.