Requiem from Sarajevo

Requiem in D Minor

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART

Jose Carreras, Ruggiero Raimondi, Cecilia Gasdia, Ildiko Komlosi

Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra
Sarajevo Cathedral Choir
conducted by Zubin Mehta

Under the aegis of the UN High Commission for Refugees, this concert took place in the rubble-strewn, bombed-out National Library building in Sarajevo in present-day Bosnia-Herzegovna, formerly part of Yugoslavia.

The break-up of Yugoslavia in the nineties set the stage for the war in the Balkans along ethnic lines that led to the creation of three independent states: Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. And as everybody knows, Bosnia suffered some of the worst destruction and atrocities.

The concert here is more symbolic rather than artistic. It is not fair to evaluate the performance on technical merits alone. To begin with, the players may have been playing on borrowed instruments; practice venues were probably non-existent; the chorus and orchestra members, still reeling from the aftermath of the war and who may have spent some time in bomb shelters, were clearly assembled from among the ranks of those who fortunately survived the war.

This is a city that is putting a brave face to the world and making a big statement about the war. By performing Mozart's final masterpiece, the Requiem in D Minor which he composed for his own impending death, the city is appealing for deliverance from the ravages of war.

The concert is interspersed with images of burning buildings, ordinary citizens caught in the cross-fire and running for their lives, and the wondering faces of children who have been robbed of their innocence so early in life.

The National Library is virtually in ruins, and it is from these ruins and ashes that the city wishes to rebuild itself.