Requiem in tribute to the victims of the war in Ukraine

On 21 September 2023, at the initiative of the Hungarian Embassy in Poland and the Liszt Institute, a concert by the St Ephrem Male Choir entitled “Requiem in Tribute to the Victims of the War in Ukraine” was held at the St. John the Baptist Archcathedral in Warsaw.

Mr Gabor Lagzi, Director of the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Centre in Warsaw gave a speech before the concert.

The concert began with a Ukrainian Marian chant, followed by three arrangements of the Lord’s Prayer: a motet by the master Romuald Twardowski, a piece by the Transcarpathian composer Father János Boksay and a Georgian song for three voices. This was followed by a Macedonian song and then music by Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, composed for the miniseries Chernobyl.

The main piece of the concert was the ‘Ukrainian Requiem’ written by choir member Viktor Papp, who hails from Transcarpathia. The piece was performed for the first time on 23 February 2023, the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war. The premiere took place at the Music Academy in Budapest. The concert at the Warsaw Archcathedral was the piece’s premiere outside Hungary.

The Requiem is a tribute to the civilian victims who died while performing their daily routines, lost their lives in their own homes as a result of rocket attacks, or were tortured and found with their hands tied in mass graves. It is a tribute to the relatives of the deceased who still live in deep grief, many of them in doubt because their loved ones have disappeared and their ashes have not been found. It is also a tribute to those Ukrainian citizens who steadfastly adapted to the difficulties of war, persevered with extraordinary physical and mental strength to keep the functioning of the state alive. And also a tribute to Ukrainian culture, because during war the culture of a nation is one of the first targets that the invaders try to destroy, said Gabor Lagzi during his speech.

The St Ephrem Men’s Choir was founded in 2002 on the initiative of conductor Tamás Bubnó and specialises in Orthodox church music, although its repertoire also includes Protestant and Gregorian rite songs, as well as works by Ferenc Liszt, Béla Bartók and György Ligeti. The choir also places great emphasis on presenting new compositions of European contemporary music. The eight-member ensemble regularly gives concerts in Hungary and around the world. To date, it has released sixteen albums.

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