Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor
Gil Shaham Violin
Bates Violin Concerto (world premiere—Philadelphia Orchestra co-commission)
Peña Laguna Oraison, for chorus and orchestra
Brahms A German Requiem
From Mozart to Berlioz to Britten, great composers have poured their souls into settings of the requiem mass. Unique among them is Brahms’s utterly beautiful A German Requiem, written after the death of his mother, with its emphasis not on the dead, but on those left behind; not on loss, but on the joy of remembrance. Cuban-Canadian composer Luis Ernesto Peña Laguna wrote Oraison in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sung in four languages, it ends on a note of joyful hope. This not-to-be-missed concert reunites Yannick and preeminent violinist Gil Shaham—always an exciting collaboration—in the world premiere of Mason Bates’s Violin Concerto.