Rodenkirchener KammerChor und Orchester | Philharmonischer Chor Köln

Music as Reminder and Hope: Schumann's »Requiem for Mignon« meets Tippett's »A Child of Our Time«, written during the Second World War. A devastating oratorio against violence, exclusion, and hatred – profoundly moving and highly relevant today.

At the heart of Tippett's »A Child of Our Time« (composed 1939–1941) is the anonymized story of the 17-year-old Jew Herschel Grynszpan, whose assassination of a secretary at the German embassy belonging to the NSDAP in 1938 provided the Nazis with a pretext for the November pogroms. Premiered in 1944, the work combines spirituals with symphonic richness. Schumann's Requiem for Mignon (created in 1849) sets Goethe's text on loss and consolation to music – both works place the suffering and innocence of children at their center.