A few days have passed, and we still feel the emotion of listening to Mozart’s Requiem in concert version at the S.M.I. Cathedral of Havana, last Saturday, April 15. The temple full of people reminded us of old Christmas or past vigils. The sound of the fans in the high temperatures of our warm spring, the restless attendees crowding the space, trying to find a place among the majestic columns.
The skillful orchestra, the large choral mass, the skillful conductor conducting by heart. Everything in this evening reminded us of those days without the pandemic, when music saved us from our daily routine and we were absorbed, as in this evening, in the Mozartian mastery of setting to music the wrath of God and the plea of humanity begging for its salvation.
Thus closed the Sacred Music Days, a sound experience proposed by the Chair of Sacred Music as a musical and spiritual preparation for the upcoming 10th SMS, a space that the public will be able to enjoy early next year, when we commemorate a decade of musical and pedagogical projects, as well as their impact on the liturgies of the Diocese. The Conference has been extended from early March to mid-April, with the participation of choral groups and soloists usually close to the Chair, resuming the long-awaited function of sacred concerts in Havana’s temples. The final proposal has been the fruit of the synergy of institutional intentions that continue to advocate for the safeguarding of our common heritage, for the survival of utopia, with the conviction that music, faith and culture in general, have the power to transform human beings.
It was the union of the Orchestra of the Lyceum of Havana; the Balthasar Neumann Ensembles, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock, conductor of the concert on Saturday 15, and the choirs of the University of the Arts (ISA), the ENA, the National Lyric Theater of Cuba and the Schola Cantorum Coralina; with the support of the Centro Cultural Padre Félix Varela and the Institute of Sacred Music and Musical Pedagogy of Regensburg (HfKM), which supports the Chair for all the projects it undertakes; the Office of the Historian of the City and its Musical Heritage Cabinet Esteban Salas; the National Center of Concert Music CUBA, and the Embassy of Germany in Cuba. It has been an intense and pleasant concert season, we thank all those involved and hope to continue with future projects that unite us, in pursuit of contributing to the welfare and virtue in our city.
Photos by Ariadne Prado Cabané and Nestor Martí.