Dies Irae
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What answers can classical music offer to today’s major social and environmental issues? How can a musician respond? Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja found an impetus in the Gregorian Dies irae (Day of Wrath) and the fear of the last judgement it depicts. She describes her Dies irae as “a play without a plot, intended as an assault on the senses.” It’s a caustic indictment of bellicosity and the ongoing climate crisis. Kopatchinskaja transports you from Battalia à 10 in D, Heinrich Biber’s baroque evocation of war, to Black Angels by George Crumb – an iconic composition criticising the Vietnam War. She concludes with Galina Ustvolskaya’s devastating Dies irae, in which Kopatchinskaja herself plays percussion.