D. Verdi. Requiem

The orchestra and choir musicAeterna conducted by Teodor Currentzis performs Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem.

The idea for the Requiem arose in late 1868. The death of Gioachino Rossini prompted Giuseppe Verdi to ask Italian composers to join forces to write a funeral mass for the anniversary of the composer's death. Verdi was given the final part, Libera me, by lot. The Requiem was composed by November 1869, but was never performed.

Verdi later decided to write his own Requiem for Rossini. But the work dragged on, and the impetus for its speedy completion was the death of the famous writer Alessandro Manzoni on May 22, 1873, whom the composer had admired since his youth.

Verdi completed his Requiem on April 10, 1874. The first performance took place on the anniversary of Manzoni's death, May 22 of the same year, in Milan's St. Mark's Cathedral. The composer himself was at the conductor's stand. A few days later, the Requiem was performed to great acclaim at La Scala.

In 2019, in Milan's St. Mark's Cathedral, in the same place where it was first performed, Teodor Currentzis' musicAeterna collective performed the great Requiem.

PERFORMERS:

musicAeterna Orchestra and Choir

Conductor - Teodor Currentzis

Chorus Master - Vitaly Polonsky

Soloists:

Zarina Abaeva

Yves-Mod Jubo

Dmitro Popov

Tarek Nazmi

St. Mark's Cathedral, Milan, 2019