During Holy Week 2025, on April 16 at 7:00 PM, The Seven Last Words from the Cross by Scottish composer James MacMillan will be performed by the NFM Choir and the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Andrzej Kosendiak.
The first part of the concert at the National Forum of Music will feature works by leading composers from the Baltic countries—Pēteris Vasks and Arvo Pärt—as well as an improvisation by cellist Krzysztof Karpeta.
The concert will open with Vasks’s two-part composition for solo cello, Grāmata čellam. This will be followed by Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, written in the form of a canon.
The Passion cantata The Seven Last Words from the Cross by James MacMillan was commissioned by the BBC. The work expresses the composer’s worldview—MacMillan often speaks publicly about his Catholic faith and stands in defense of fellow believers, who make up a religious minority in Scotland.
Cellist Krzysztof Karpeta, a musician closely associated with the National Forum of Music, will improvise on the Ukrainian melody Chervona Kalyna. Originating in the early 20th century, the song was the anthem of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Legion and has recently become an informal hymn of Ukraine’s resistance against the ongoing criminal aggression by Russia.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
More: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/component/nfmcalendar/event/11257
