Author Jeroen Brouwers and artist Roger Raveel provide a contemporary response to the universal music of Mozart’s Requiem, Christian Köhler recomposes the score for ‘Harmonie’.

In A new Requiem, Josse De Pauw sets to work with the text by author Jeroen Brouwers for which the artist Roger Raveel also made drawings. All those involved are inspired by the brilliant music of Mozart’s Requiem. During the performance, I Solisti del Vento will give a unique performance of Christian Köhler’s adaptation of the Requiem, which he has orchestrated for a 13-piece wind ensemble. The result is a reinterpretation of Mozart’s masterpiece which does not use the original Latin hymns, but instead a text by Jeroen Brouwers. Throughout his extensive oeuvre, this renowned author frequently reflects upon death. It was for this very reason that he was asked to formulate a literary response to Mozart’s masterpiece. He accepted the assignment. ‘In my view the whole of literature is about nothing but death... You can of course picture death as a soldier with a bayonet, but I have always tried to portray it as a beautiful but vicious woman, cruel and mean.’

Credits

  • Text • Jeroen Brouwers
  • Music • W.A. Mozart
  • Musical adaptation • Christian Köhler
  • Actor • Tom Jansen
  • Soprano • Iris Luypaers
  • Musical direction • Francis Pollet
  • Musical performance • I Solisti del Vento
  • Direction • Josse De Pauw