This free concert has been made possible by the Department of Defence. Jointly commissioned by the Australian War Memorial and the Department of Veterans' Affairs.
Diggers Requiem Brass brings you the spirit of the upcoming Diggers Requiem in a FREE concert not to be missed, commemorating the end of WWI.
The Diggers' Requiem represents - in 12 movements - the battles of Fromelles, Pozières, Bapaume, Bullecourt, Villers-Bretonneux, Hamel, Amiens, Péronne and Mont Saint-Quentin, Bellenglise, Montbrehain, Ypres and Passchendaele in Belgium. It refers to death of the Red Baron and the charge of Beersheba in Palestine, which was the last great charge of cavalry. 62,000 bells representing each Australian who died are incorporated into the last movement, Lux Aeterna.
The different movements were written by some of the greatest Australian contemporary composers, as well as the recently discovered Frederick Septimus Kelly, who died at Beaumon-Hamel in 1916. His Lament of the Somme, which evokes the Battle of Pozières, near Albert, was written just two weeks before his death. Elena Kats-Chernin, who finished writing her piece last year, will evoke the battle of Bullecourt in the Pas-de-Calais. Alex Lithgow who wrote the stirring Victoria March, which was played by the Australian Army as it marched into Bapaume in 1917, has his work incorporated into Nigel Westlake’s the Glass Soldier, a piece for trumpet and orchestra. A lone piper plays a lament by Pipe-Major John Grant in the last movement.
This extraordinary symphonic work was devised and curated by Christopher Latham, Artistic Director of the Flowers of War project, and the first musical artist-in-residence at the Australian War Memorial.
PROGRAM
GF Handel Dead March from Saul
FS Kelly The Somme Lament
Nigel Westlake / Alex Lithgow The Liberation of Bapaume
Elena Kats-Chernin LacrimosA
Richard Mills The Charge at Beersheba
Elena Kats-Chernin The Silent Field
Nigel Westlake I Was Blinded, But Now I See
Andrew Schultz Harmonium Bellum
Graeme Koehne Pie Jesu
John Grant Lament for the Pipers Who Fell in the Great War
Ross Edwards Lux Aeterna - In Paradisum
Christopher Latham Prayer for Peace - Pie Jesu II
PERFORMERS
Paul Goodchild trumpet (AUS), David Novak accordion (Slovenia), Simone Riksman soprano (Holland), Christina Wilson mezzo (AUS), Andrew Goodwin tenor (AUS), David Hidden baritone, Jason Craig bagpipes (AUS). Directed by Christopher Latham.
TICKETS - Free concert