European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

Dobrinka Tabakova's Lux Aeterna Premiered in Romania

Dec. 20, 2023

On December 16, the Filarmonica Banatul Timişoara and conductor Gabriel Bebeșelea premiered a Requiem for Victims of Communism in Timişoara, Romania. The work, commissioned by Filarmonica Banatul Timişoara, is comprised of seven movements by seven composers from seven former communist countries, which, like Romania, experienced revolutions in 1989. In addition to Dobrinka Tabakova who was born in Bulgaria and contributed her work, Lux Aeterna to the project, the other composers include Zygmunt Krauze (Poland), Martin Smolka (Czech Republic), Iris Szeghy (Slovakia), Sven Helbig (East Germany), László Tihanyi (Hungary), and Dan Dediu (Romania). The Filarmonica Banatul Timişoara explains the history and inspiration behind this sort of musical collaboration:

"The idea of ​​several composers joining their creative efforts to compose a Requiem belongs to Giuseppe Verdi, who wanted a liturgical Mass (Messa per Rossini) to be sung at the first commemoration of Gioachino Rossini's death at the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna. For this, he contacted the 12 most important Italian composers who quickly sent the publisher Giulio Ricordi their scores. The conductor Angelo Mariani, although he had initially agreed to conduct this event, decided to boycott the collective project initiated by Verdi because he was organizing another concert in memory of Rossini, right in his hometown, in Pesaro. Then the impresario of the Communal Theater of Bologna, who was supposed to provide performers, procrastinated and postponed, so that the project died and the score was lost in the mists of time. Five years later, the writer Alessandro Manzoni died, and Verdi wanting to dedicate a requiem to him, restructured his part of Messa per Rossini: "Libera me," composing around it what would become one of the most important religious works in the history of music. The score of this requiem was discovered only in 1986, and the absolute premiere took place in 1988 in Stuttgart, with Helmuth Rilling at the lectern.

Another idea was taken from the other model, the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten: the composer had asked for approval to use, in addition to the Latin text, poems in English by Wilfred Owen, killed in the First World War. The seven composers were asked to include, in addition to the Latin text, a text they consider relevant in their national language. Thus, this requiem will be in eight languages, a true example of unity through diversity.

From these historical inspirations came the idea of ​​a collective requiem, realized and performed for the first time in the history of music at the very event for which it was conceived. The order in which the seven composers wrote the parts is not random, it was chosen according to the chronology of the beginning of the anti-communist revolutions. The fact that all seven composers were present in Timișoara at the absolute premiere of the work is also unique.

Of course, the work will be eclectic, but the homogeneity will be given by the message of struggle and human sacrifice that brought us the light of freedom." 

Notably, Dobrinka Tabakova was featured in Gramophone last month. Read the full article here.

To learn more about Dobrinka Tabakova, visit schott-music.com.


Dobrinka Tabakova
Lux Aeterna (2023)
for SATB choir and orchestra
8'

News