Requiem

A Bridge Between East and West Fazıl Says admiration for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is not limited to his role as a pianist. As a composer, the Turkish all-rounder draws inspiration from the work of his Salzburg colleague – and especially from his last, mysterious stroke of genius, the Requiem from 1791. With Mozart & Mevlana, Fazıl Say has created a work with the same instrumentation, which captures the aura and spiritual power of Mozart's Requiem and connects it with the spiritual and artistic traditions of the East. The central figure is the 13th-century Persian Sufi mystic Rumi, whose texts are central and who in Say's Turkish homeland is better known as Mevlana. "Why should we not unite East and West in love and friendship through the texts of the great philosopher Mevlana and quotations from the music of a brilliant composer such as Mozart in a flowing musical space?", says Fazıl Say, who regards himself as a bridge-builder and, with the intercultural concept of the work, which premiered in 2024 and is now being released by Warner Classics in the original instrumentation, wants to contribute to world peace. A select group of top musicians supports him, including the international soloists quartet consisting of Fatma Said, Marianne Crebassa, Pene Pati and Alexandros Stavrakakis, which uniquely stands as a symbol of international understanding. The score, which combines echoes of Mozart's musical language with the sound of Turkish folk instruments, is brilliantly performed by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Sanderling, with the powerful voice of the Berlin Radio Choir as a complement.