A concert in Milan to celebrate the musical opus “Via Crucis – De Profundis”

This evening, Friday 30 September, a concert of sacred music will take place in Milan and will include an extract from the cantata “De Profundis” composed by Father Armando Pierucci, musician, composer and director of the Magnificat Institute of Jerusalem, which is supported by ATS pro Terra Sancta.

The event is being organized by the Symphony Orchestra of the Accademia delle Opere in collaboration with the Russian Foundation for Social and Cultural Initiatives and the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. The performance, entitled “Beauty will save the world”, occurs during the year that has been dedicated to cultural exchanges between Italy and Russia.

To mark the occasion, several members of the Association “Friends of the Magnificat” have overseen the reissuing of two CDs in a new, double CD entitled “Via Crucis – De Profundis”.It contains two cantatas that Father Armando Pierucci wrote specifically for a text by the Russian poet Regina Derieva.

Spurred on by Alexander Deriev, husband of the text’s author, Father Armando returned to the traditions of the 18th and 19th century to put her Via Crucis to music. The devotion of Christians throughout the world, who each day retrace in Jerusalem the Via Dolorosa, and the theme of profound suffering and memory of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus and his Mother led the composer to write a moving and dramatic score which at the same time is full of hope.

The concert, which begins at 20.30 in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, will include, among others, works by the Metropolitan Hilarion Alfaiev (a leading figure in the Russian Orthodox Church and a noted musician himself) as well as portions of “De Profundis”. The two composers are expected to attend. The CD will be available to the public at the end of October 2011.