Musical tribute to Chopin on death anniversary

Mozart’s "Requiem" will be performed in a Warsaw church on Tuesday in an annual tribute to Romantic composer Fryderyk Chopin.

A statue of the great Romantic composer Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) in Warsaw's Łazienki Park. Pixabay License

Image by Jacek Dopieralski from Pixabay

The performance will mark 174 years since Chopin's death and will be held at the Polish capital’s Holy Cross Church, where the composer’s heart is buried in one of the pillars.

Chopin's heart was brought to Poland by his elder sister Ludwika from Paris, where the composer died on October 17, 1849. It is interred in a pillar on the left-hand side of the nave.

The concert features Mozart’s Requiem in a version for string quartet, arranged by Peter Lichtenthal and performed by the Lutosławski Quartet, a resident ensemble of the National Music Forum in Wrocław, southwestern Poland.

It is a long-standing tradition to perform Mozart’s Requiem at Warsaw's Holy Cross Church every year on October 17, as this work was performed during Chopin’s funeral ceremony at the Madeleine Church in Paris on October 30, 1849.

Chopin's grave at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. Photo: DIMSFIKAS [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

(mk/gs)