Roman Maciejewski’s monumental Requiem. Missa pro defunctis is performed tonight and tomorrow at the Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw during special concerts dedicated to Sue Ryder - Lady Ryder of Warsaw.

The performers, comprising the Orchestra and Chorus of the Warsaw Philharmonic, and leading Polish soloists, are conducted by Tomasz Bugaj.
 

According to Joanna Chodor from the Sue Ryder Foundation, the choice of the repertoire is not accidental. “Maciejewski started to write his Requiem soon after World War Two as an homage to its victims. It took him fifteen years to complete the piece. The war also exerted a tangible influence on Sue Ryder who began her charity work as a result of her war-time experience,” Chodor says.

Sue Ryder joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry at the age of 16 and was soon assigned to the Polish section of the Special Operations Executive. After the war, she volunteered to do relief work in many countries, including Poland.

In 1953 she established the Sue Ryder Foundation, which provided help for the elderly and disabled. It operates more than 80 homes worldwide, including 30 in Poland, and has about 580 charity shops. Ryder was made a life peer in 1979, being created Baroness Ryder of Warsaw. She died in 2000, aged 77. 
 

Roman Maciejewski was one of the most prominent 20th-century Polish composers. Born 100 years ago, he studied with such household names as Nadia Boulanger and Karol Szymanowski and worked with the film director Ingmar Bergman and Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn. Having left Poland in 1938 he lived in Sweden, the United States (1951-77) and back in Sweden, where he died in 1998.

His Requiem – Missa Pro Defunctis – for soloists, mixed choir and symphony orchestra received an award from the Paderewski Foundation in 1959.  It was performed earlier this year at Westminster Cathedral in London by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, alongside Polish soloists, under the young, up-and-coming Polish maestro, Michal Dworzynski. (mk/jb)