Requiem for piano solo on the anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin’s death

Chopin died on October 17, 1849, and was buried less than two weeks later, on October 30, at the Père-Lachaise Cemetery. The funeral mass was celebrated at the La Madeleine Church in Paris, and its musical setting consisted primarily of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem.

Our composer valued the works of the Salzburg genius, placing him above other composers (except for Bach, whose legacy was one of the elements that shaped Fryderyk’s artistic personality). According to some accounts, Chopin himself requested that Mozart’s Requiem be performed at his funeral – Hector Berlioz wrote about this in a beautiful obituary published in Le Journal des Débats: ‘Chopin’s constant admiration for Mozart led him to express, in his last moments, the wish that the immortal Requiem be performed at his funeral. His worthy pupil, Mr. Gutmann, took over this wish with his master’s last breath’.

Currently, the Requiem is performed on every anniversary of the Master’s death, October 17, at the Holy Cross Basilica in Warsaw (where his heart is located). This year, it will be performed in an arrangement for solo piano by Vadym Kholodenko, a Ukrainian pianist who has been associated with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute for many years, thanks in part to his regular performances at the annual Chopin and His Europe festival. Kholodenko will perform Requiem in arrangement by Karl Klindworth. The concert will start at 8:30 p.m., admission is free.