Everyday testimonies and pleas for peace: music as a response to disasters
On 13 November 2025, the RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin will perform the programme GRAFFITI together with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Under the baton of RIAS principal conductor Justin Dolye, the evening will combine the piece Graffiti by Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg (born 1958) with the Marosszéker Dances and Missa brevis by Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967).
Image gallery
Konzerthaus Berlin - Großer Saal
The collaboration with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen marks Doyle's long-awaited debut with the internationally acclaimed ensemble.
The concert is dedicated to music that responds to disasters:
Magnus Lindberg's Graffiti, premiered in 2009, sets to music inscriptions from the ruins of Pompeii, the ancient city that was buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The composer was fascinated by these insights: ‘We find philosophical comments, rumours, crude sayings, advertising messages and official announcements – a kaleidoscope of everyday life that is not so different from our own.’ Lindberg sets these fragmentary documents to music in an archaic-sounding, dramatic tonal language that is less experimental than in his earlier works.
Zoltán Kodály's Missa brevis was written in 1944, when the composer and his wife Emma Gruber sought refuge in the basement of the Budapest Opera House during several weeks of bombing raids. Like graffiti, the Missa brevis refers to great role models, paying homage to Palestrina, Bach and 19th-century choral works. Above all, however, it is a powerful call for reconciliation and peace.
Kodály's Missa does not end with the Agnus Dei, as most Mass settings do, but adds the Ite missa est – ‘Go in peace. Thanks be to God, give peace’ – and repeats the word ‘peace’ tirelessly, almost as a command to humanity.
The Marosszéker Dances, composed 17 years earlier, serve as a prelude to the Missa brevis in the programme. They reflect Kodály's love of Hungarian folk music and especially the rich tradition of the cultural melting pot of Transylvania, better known as Siebenbürgen and now part of Romania. ‘Only a synthesis of both traditions, the national and the world tradition, can yield valuable results for us,’ Kodály repeatedly emphasised when he championed the development of Hungarian art music.
With
The concert is dedicated to music that responds to disasters:
Magnus Lindberg's Graffiti, premiered in 2009, sets to music inscriptions from the ruins of Pompeii, the ancient city that was buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The composer was fascinated by these insights: ‘We find philosophical comments, rumours, crude sayings, advertising messages and official announcements – a kaleidoscope of everyday life that is not so different from our own.’ Lindberg sets these fragmentary documents to music in an archaic-sounding, dramatic tonal language that is less experimental than in his earlier works.
Zoltán Kodály's Missa brevis was written in 1944, when the composer and his wife Emma Gruber sought refuge in the basement of the Budapest Opera House during several weeks of bombing raids. Like graffiti, the Missa brevis refers to great role models, paying homage to Palestrina, Bach and 19th-century choral works. Above all, however, it is a powerful call for reconciliation and peace.
Kodály's Missa does not end with the Agnus Dei, as most Mass settings do, but adds the Ite missa est – ‘Go in peace. Thanks be to God, give peace’ – and repeats the word ‘peace’ tirelessly, almost as a command to humanity.
The Marosszéker Dances, composed 17 years earlier, serve as a prelude to the Missa brevis in the programme. They reflect Kodály's love of Hungarian folk music and especially the rich tradition of the cultural melting pot of Transylvania, better known as Siebenbürgen and now part of Romania. ‘Only a synthesis of both traditions, the national and the world tradition, can yield valuable results for us,’ Kodály repeatedly emphasised when he championed the development of Hungarian art music.
PERFORMED WORKS:
- Magnus Lindberg - Graffiti
- Zoltán Kodály - Marosszék Dances
- Zoltán Kodály - Missa brevis
With
- RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin
- Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
- Justin Doyle, Conductor
Participating artists
RIAS Kammerchor Berlin
Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Justin Doyle (Dirigent)
Dates
November 2025
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