Requiem

The work takes as its starting point the tragedy of oblivion, a reminder of all the people who have been killed by other people and obliterated from all recollection, and the rage and sorrow we feel at the most terrible of all crimes; the murder of children, – A crime which we are forced to live with, at least in our own time, with tens of thousands of children killed in the many ongoing wars of our time.

The composition is dedicated to Beate Klarsfeld, a Geman woman who dedicated her life to tracking down the unpunished Nazi criminals. A passage from one of her books, describing the children’s departure for the concentration camps, decisively influenced the design of the Requiem.

The interaction of words and music is very important for the experience of this work. All the words are reproduced in a booklet. The composition is a product of teamwork: the composer says that the music is entirely governed by the words, and that music and text have been brought as close together as possible.

The Requiem demands extensive forces: the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Choir, the Stockholm Chamber Choir, a girls’ choir, soloists: Marianne Mellnäs, soprano, Birgitta Svendén, contralto, Esaias Tewolde-Berhan, tenor, Mikael Samuelson, baritone. The performance is conducted by Leif Segerstam.