Salzburg pledges peace offering (as Russian orchestra awaits)

‘The Salzburg Festival has very deliberately chosen these three works, given Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,’ says tonight’s press release on the festival’s opening concert.

It consists of three peace-related works, one by a Ukrainian composer:
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847)

Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich Choral cantata for mixed chorus and orchestra MWV A 11 (composed 1831)

Giacinto Scelsi (1905–1988)

3rd Movement from Konx-om-pax (composed 1968/69)

Valentin Silvestrov (*1937)

Still Music for string orchestra (composed 2002)

The conductor is the Englishman, Duncan Ward.

However, the festival still intends to go ahead with concerts by Teodor Currentzis and the Kremlin-funded MusicaAeterna, representing the ugliest face of war.