Concert of the Berlin University of the Arts Symphony Orchestra conducted by Steven Sloane with mezzo-soprano Marina Prudenskaya and the Berlin Chamber Choir conducted by Maike Bühle.

Compositions of Tragic Topicality.
A Concert in Times of War

Valentin Silvestrov: Prayer for Ukraine
Gustav Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
–pause–
Rudolf Mauersberger: Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst
Dmitri Schostakowitsch: Symphonie Nr. 8 c-Moll op. 65

Marina Prudenskaya, Mezzosopran
Kammerchor der Künste Berlin (Director, Maike Bühle)
Symphonieorchester der UdK Berlin
Steven Sloane, Conductor

The concert will be held in­The concert will be held in memory of Yuriy Kerpatenko, chief conductor of the Kherson Philharmonic, who was murdered by Russian soldiers. ­­

On 20^th November the Berlin University of Arts Symphony Orchestra are joined by the Kammerchor der Künste Berlin, mezzo-soprano Marina Prudenskaya, and conductor Steven Sloane to send out a signal for peace. In Berlin’s Philharmonie they are to perform four works of tragic relevance in times of war: Valentin Silvestrov's Prayer for Ukraine, Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, Rudolf Mauersberger's "Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst" and Dmitri Shostakovich's monumental 8^th Symphony. With this concert the orchestra continues its ongoing Mahler cycle at the Philharmonie now combining it with an urgent appeal for the pursuit of peace.

We are living in a time of transition and turmoil, at a time of war at the heart of Europe. Why is peace in constant jeopardy? Not least because of our tendency to forget. Is this why history repeats itself?  Over and over again? Artists have always created works that reflect the events of their time – to prevent the forgetting. Works of art are the expression and the testimony of a past society and can serve as a reminder and a call for change for future generations. Subsequent performers of these works become the new protestors against forgetting. In music, they update history through their performances, bringing historical perspectives into a modern context. The students of the Berlin University of the Arts have in turn joined the active dialogue and committed themselves to the fight against this collective amnesia.

This idea serves as the backdrop for the Berlin University of the Arts’ Concert for Peace on November the 20^th. The main work of the concert is Dmitri Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony. This is the middle symphony of his three "war symphonies", the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth.  At the time of composition these symphonies appeared relatively conformist and were conveniently interpreted by both audiences and authorities as expressions of the horror and suffering of war. Today, however, their regime criticizing potential is as clear as day. In this gigantic and uncompromising magnum opus the composer’s bitterness towards Stalin’s regime oozes from every note, a bitterness felt keenly by many people today.

Mourning, especially private, personal mourning, is a central theme of Friedrich Rückert's Kindertotenlieder. In his verses the poet mourns the loss of his own children. In Gustav Mahler’s setting for mezzo soprano and orchestra the composer draws on these texts having himself lost six siblings. As always, the great master succeeds in finding the universal in the personal, the transcendental amidst the hopelessness, and here a glimmer of redemption even in the most tragic.

These two orchestral works are each preceded by a prayer sung here by the Kammerchor der Künste Berlin.  In his motet "Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst" Rudolf Mauersberger sets selected verses from the Old Testament Lamentations of Jeremiah in an attempt to express the horror and disbelief at the destruction of Dresden in 1945. The words go on to beg for relief from the misery and finally to pray for renewal. Mauersberger himself conducted the premiere later that year in the burnt-out shell of Dresden’s Kreuzkirche.

The concert opens with “Prayer for Ukraine”, a hymn written originally in 1885 when Imperial Russia was in the process of suppressing the Ukrainian language. In 1998 it was declared a national spiritual anthem. The 2014 setting by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, who fled his homeland in 2022 and now lives in Berlin, serves as a poignant reminder of this country’s plight. And this prayer is more relevant today than ever.