Requiem Mozart and Kõrvits

Kristiina Poska: Female conductor in the spotlight with Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska is one of the group of young women who are emphatically claiming a place in the traditionally male-dominated conducting world. Since 2019, she has been chief conductor of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, which plays all important Flemish concert halls from Ghent. Together with the famous Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the orchestra performs a religiously inspired work by her compatriot Tõnu Kõrvits and Mozart's timelessly beautiful Requiem.

Estonian-Mozart Harmony

Kõrvits composed an intimate and introspective work that builds on the long tradition of Estonian religious hymns and his country's folk music. Well-sounding, directly affecting music full of archaic melodic inflexions that contrasts beautifully with Mozart's grand swan song. The Austrian composer Franz Xaver Süssmayr completed the Requiem masterfully in the spirit of his teacher, who died tragically young.