All Saints' concert with Bergen Domkor in Bergen domkirke

Address

Domkirkeplassen 1,
5003 Bergen

All Saints' concert with Bergen Domkor in Bergen domkirke

Description

Requiem by Torbjørn Dyrud A concert about life, death, light and love. 💛 Requiem is a commission from Oslo domkor and Bergen Domkor, and receives its world premiere simultaneously in Oslo domkirke and Bergen domkirke on 1 November 2026. The work is for choir, string trio and wind trio, and between the movements texts from near-death experiences are read. Requiem is Torbjørn Dyrud's last work. The composer and musician Torbjørn Dyrud lived with a serious cancer diagnosis for seven years, and he died on 19 July this year, shortly after delivering the work. In his last years he found much comfort in accounts of near-death experiences and similar, incomprehensible experiences. Torbjørn Dyrud takes the classical Requiem text as his starting point. But this requiem also opens up to something more, perhaps best illustrated in the central Bible verse from the Letter to the Corinthians: «Now we see as in a mirror, in a riddle, then we shall see face to face. Now I understand in part, then I shall understand fully, as God knows me fully.» Torbjørn was bright of mind, and part of the intention behind the work was a wish that we here on earth might perhaps to a greater extent be able to see that the world is in fact filled with light and love. Near-death experiences are accounts and experiences that challenge our understanding of reality on a fundamental level. Many of those who have had a near-death experience insist that who we are, at the deepest level, will continue to live even after the body is dead. “For me as a church musician, this literature has opened my own spiritual life on a fundamental level. It seems more and more credible that accounts of a more real reality, outside time and space, a state where unconditional love fills everything, are quite simply true. Something in me opens when I read these personal accounts in the light of the Bible and other historical sources.” - Torbjørn Dyrud Together with Dyrud's requiem, three of Charles Parry's Six Songs of Farewell are performed. Parry wrote the movements in the last part of his life, in despair at having lost several of his music students in the First World War. The songs have since become a natural part of many British funerals. They were first performed at a memorial service after Parry himself in 1919, and later also at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in 2022. Torbjørn was greatly inspired by English choral literature. Now his new Requiem stands side by side with another magnificent work of church music. Performers Bergen Domkor Simon Stenersen, trumpet Grethe Tonheim, trombone Ragnhild Lothe, horn Chien-Yu Chu, violin Liene Klava, viola Aldo Hodja, cello Irene Waage, text reader Kjetil Almenning, conductor Concerts Stord kyrkje 31 October Bergen domkirke 1 November Presented in collaboration with Den Nationale Scene. Welcome to a concert about life, death, light and love. 💛 Photo: Torbjørn Dyrud Programme: Requiem (2026) by Torbjørn Dyrud (1974-2026) Six Songs of Farewell (1918) (I, III and IV) by Charles Parry (1848-1918)