There is a variation on the theme of "how little we know" - it's "how
rarely we connect the dots," especially if they are widely spaced.

For instance:  I know and greatly admire (from her SF "Onegin") Russian
soprano Elena Prokina, heard both British tenor Anthony Rolfe-Johnson
and German baritone Andreas Schmidt (who frequently sings with Helmuth
Rilling).

Having these three as soloists in the Britten "War Requiem" makes perfect
sense.  Add Mstislav Rostropovich as conductor and the news is good, but
not in the category of a banner headline.

Considering the historical-emotional-international background to the "War
Requiem," the fact that German president Johannes Rau and former Soviet
president Mihail Gorbachov are expected to attend the Sept.  28 concert
is interesting, but. . .

No, the amazing aspect to this concert is the location.  I am sure many
have known about this, but it's definitely "news to me." The concert will
open the 9th annual Usedom Music Festival, sponsored by the state of
Mecklenburg-West Pommerania, at Peenemunde.

When I first heard about this, vague memories popped up:  a Nazi research
facility, where the first ballistic missiles and those damned V-2 rockets
were launched, Werner von Braun's old haunt.  In truth, I had to find it
on the map:  directly north of Berlin, just a few miles from the Polish
border, south of Kopenhagen, across the western end of the Baltic Sea.
And, most significantly, it's 200 miles from London, a distance covered
in five minutes by the V-2s.

The concert hall for this event of "solidarity and reconciliation" is
the reconstructed Siemens power plant for the former missile center.
The original building - and the entire complex on Gennan Island - was built
by slave labor from Nazi concentration camps.  (After heavy Allied bombings
in 1943, the facility was moved underground beneath a camp in Thuringia.)

Britten dedicated the Requiem to the people of Russia, Great Britain
and Germany.  It celebrated the consecration of St.  Michael's Cathedral
at Coventry in 1962, restored after Luftwaffe bombs destroyed it in 1940.
Besides the soloists representing the nations Britten was addressing,
musical forces for the Requiem include the Boys Choir of Coventry
Cathedral, the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Radio
Philharmonie Hanover of North Germany, the North Germany Radio Choir, the
BBC Singers, the Philharmonia Choir of London and the Hamburg Boys Choir.

Information about the Usedom Festival, in German only at this point, is
available at http://www.usedomer-musikfestival.de.

Janos Gereben/SF
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