Roman Maciejewski’s Requiem had its UK premiere, fifty years after the work’s world premiere, marking the centenary of the composer’s birth.

Peter Gentle reports

Maciejewski studied music in Berlin, Warsaw and Paris.  He settled in Sweden after the outbreak of World War Two, then lived in the United States for many years, before returning to Sweden, where he died in 1998.  The Requiem, his major work, took him almost 15 years to compose. Its admirers include Pope Benedict XVI, who, as Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote to the composer’s brother in 2001: ‘It is fresh and brave, anchored in the living tradition of Western music. Thanks to these qualities, it speaks spontaneously, directly to the heart, without demanding, as contemporary music often does, any learned intermediary.’

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, BBC Singers and Polish soloists were conducted by the young Polish maestro Michal Dworzynski.

The concert at Westminster Cathedral was one of the highlights of Polska! Year, a festival of Polish arts and culture in the United Kingdom.