Arvo Pärt
»Da pacem Domine« for choir and string orchestra (2004/06)
Darius Milhaud
»Cantate de la Paix« for men's choir and children's choir a cappella (1937)
Johann Sebastian Bach
»Dona nobis pacem« from: Mass in B minor (1749)
Arnold Schönberg
»Friede auf Erden« op. 13 Version for choir and orchestra (1907)
Joseph Haydn
»Missa in tempore belli« (1797)
- Kölner Domchor Cologne Cathedral Choir – Boys’ Choir
- Vokalensemble Kölner Dom
- Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
- Eberhard Metternich Conductor
“Give us peace!” This cry resounds throughout the entire programme of this “sacred music at the Shrine of the Magi”, organised jointly by Cologne’s cathedral choirs and the Gürzenich Orchestra. Time and again, the contemporary moment has offered composers grounds to call for peace: be it Napoleon’s troops before the gates of Vienna that inspired Haydn to his “Missa in tempore belli” or the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which Arvo Pärt treated in his “Da pacem Domine”. Arnold Schönberg commences with the message of peace contained in the Christian Christmas legend and, deploying consonance and dissonance, also touches on the discrepancy between the real discord in the world and the ideal concept of peace. Darius Milhaud shapes his call to peace as a dialogue between man and God.
