War Requiem
Municipal House, Monday 2 November 2026 at 7.30 p.m., public dress rehearsal at 10 a.m.
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Lukáš Vasilek – conductor, choirmaster
Czech Radio Children’s Choir
Věra Hrdinková – choirmistress
Elena Tsallagova – soprano
Robert Murray – tenor
Kostas Smoriginas – baritone
Linda Sítková – organ
Arvo Pärt: Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten for string orchestra and bell (6′)
Benjamin Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66 (78′)
Music is the white light in which all colours meet.
Arvo Pärt
Silence, memory, and humanity – three themes that run through this exceptional evening with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra at Municipal House. The programme opens with the meditative Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, in which the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt creates, from a simple musical gesture, a profound space for reflection.
It is followed by Benjamin Britten’s monumental War Requiem, one of the most powerful anti-war works of the 20th century. In it Britten combines the Latin text of the Requiem Mass with poems by the fallen soldier Wilfred Owen, creating an oratorio of extraordinary force that reminds us of the human cost of conflict. The work was written in 1962 for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral, destroyed during the Second World War, and remains one of the most profound musical statements on war and hope.
The performance will be led by conductor and choirmaster Lukáš Vasilek, who stands at the head of the Prague Philharmonic Choir and is a respected figure on the European choral scene. The evening’s soloists will be soprano Elena Tsallagova, tenor Robert Murray, and baritone Kostas Smoriginas. The performance will also feature the Czech Radio Children’s Choir with choirmistress Věra Hrdinková and organist Linda Sítková.
Join us for an evening in which music recalls both the fragility of human life and the strength of hope. In Municipal House’s Smetana Hall, Britten’s message will resound with an urgency that has lost none of its relevance even after decades.
The concert will be broadcast live on Czech Radio Vltava:
Ticket prices range from 180 to 1,100 CZK
