Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.On the weekend that a ceasefire finally came into force in Gaza, thoughts of war and peace hung heavy in the air. At such moments music has been the channel for the communal expression of loss, grief, and the recall of events past, for as long as anyone can remember.It must have been a coincidence that the London Philharmonic Orchestra was giving a concert specifically about the human cost of conflict. An imaginative programme, part of its “Moments Remembered” series, reached across centuries and ended with a performance of what is arguably the most important commemorative work of the 21st century so far.In 1796, as Haydn started composition of a new mass, Austria was mobilising troops to meet a growing threat of invasion by the French Revolutionary army. The Missa in tempore belli (“Mass in Time of War”) is for the most part an improbably cheerful piece. Only in the last movements do warlike trumpet and drums cloud the atmosphere, though that was enough to rouse an adequate solo quartet and the London Philharmonic Choir to a bit more energy. A sleek performance from Vladimir Jurowski, LPO conductor emeritus, could have done with more bite.A short interlude followed in the form of György Kurtág’s pensive Petite musique solennelle. Written in 2015, this was a tribute from one nearly 90-year-old to another, as it was dedicated to Pierre Boulez on his 90th birthday. The atmosphere is grave, with sombre brass and tolling bells, every detail impeccably realised here.It led in perfectly to the main event. When John Adams was asked to write a work commemorating the terrorist attacks of 9/11, he says he came to the feeling that no conventional kind of composition would be equal to the nature of the event. This could not be a requiem or a memorial.His response was On the Transmigration of Souls for pre-recorded tape, chorus, children’s choir and orchestra, which he describes as a “memory space”. Out of silence come the sounds of distant traffic, walking feet and a voice intoning “missing . . . missing”. The names of some of the dead are read out, together with phrases from obituaries, and then fade back into the music.The work is unlike anything else that Adams has written. It might seem more like a sound installation, except that the music gradually becomes the dominant expressive force. Like the Kurtág that preceded it, the score remains ambiguous. Its sentiment is equally of threnody and consolation. A screeching climax near the end could be a depiction of the terrorist attacks or a communal cry of pain.Adams has created music both rooted in a specific event and relevant to any time, and its emotional power has not lessened over nearly a quarter of a century. Jurowski and his LPO forces, joined by Tiffin Youth Choir, did him full justice.★★★★☆southbankcentre.co.uk
