A seven-part cycle written in Vienna throughout 2025 receives its premiere at Europe's most prestigious classical festival on 12 August 2026.
Salzburg Festival — Europe's most prestigious classical festival — presents the world premiere of Valentyn Sylvestrov's new work 'Litanies for Lost Cities' on 12 August 2026 at Großes Festspielhaus. This is a seven-part chamber-vocal cycle (total duration 38 minutes) for soprano, baritone, string quartet, and piano. Each litany is dedicated to one of the Ukrainian cities that suffered major destruction during the war: Mariupol, Bakhmut, Severodonetsk, Avdiivka, Chasiv Yar, Pokrovsk, Kupiansk. Sylvestrov began work on the cycle in January 2025 in Vienna. The texts — the composer's original poetic inscriptions in Ukrainian and Latin — present each city as a 'soul' speaking from beneath the ruins. The musical structure is typical Sylvestrov post-tonal meditativeness with subtle allusions to Orthodox liturgy and Gregorian chant. Performing: soprano Anzhela Hirova (Ukrainian singer, artist of the Wiener Staatsoper), baritone Matthias Goerne (one of the lieder repertoire stars), Kronos String Quartet (USA) — Sylvestrov's regular interpreters. The composer is present in person; a 90-minute public conversation with cultural scholar Yulia Kisseva will also take place. The recording of this premiere will be included in a new ECM monographic release (see separate news).
