The Unesco Beethoven Symphony No.9 for Peace

In 2018, marking the exact 100th anniversary of the Armistice ending World War 1, the all-star World Orchestra for Peace gave two UNESCO designated performances of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Symbolically one in each of the UK and Germany – for the BBC Proms in London and for the Würth Music Foundation in Künzelsau. Founded in 1995 by Sir Georg Solti to reaffirm, in his words, “the unique strength of music as an ambassador for peace”, leading players from the world’s finest orchestras gave this performance at ‘the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month’, 100 years after the guns fell silent in 1918. The performance is preceded by moving words of welcome and introduction from Prof. Würth and Lady Solti, both highlighting the need for brotherhood and joy amongst all nations, as reflected in the words of Schiller’s Ode in the choral finale.

Karl Jenkins: The Armed Man

The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins is the most performed work by any living composer. This performance is the largest ever staged and was uniquely performed in synchronisation with a specially commissioned war-archive film reinforcing the narrative of the work – the build up to war, war itself and the consequences of war. Projected on to five giant screens, the film delivers a poignant backdrop to the moving musical narration providing the audience with a powerful and emotional multimedia experience. In this truly unique historic occasion Sir Karl Jenkins conducts The World Orchestra for Peace and around 2,000 singers from nearly 30 countries who joined together to Sing for Peace in Berlin.

World Orchestra for Peace at the Abu Dhabi Festival

For this concert of the World Orchestra for Peace at the Abu Dhabi Festival, conductor Valery Gergiev, head of St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater and principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, has put together a program that includes major works by two of his favorite composers, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. With the World Orchestra for Peace, Gergiev has at his command an orchestra that is truly remarkable from every point of view. It is not only put together of the best musicians from the best orchestras of the world; the orchestra, which was established by Sir Georg Solti in 1995, also pursues a very special goal: to “reaffirm the unique strength of music as an ambassador for peace”. The concerts given by this ensemble, whose musicians are all actively engaged in their respective orchestras, are rare but exquisite and highly appreciated events.

UNESCO Concert for Peace

Sir Georg Solti’s unique “all-star” World Orchestra for Peace, with Donald Runnicles conducting a quartet of world-class soloists, chorus members of Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Bayerischer Chorakademie, give a commemorative performance of Beethoven’s legacy to universal peace and brotherhood. They are joined by players of the newly-formed Würth Philharmoniker to add a touching significance on this occasion of remembrance; that the future after any war lies in the hands of the surviving younger generation. Recorded at the exact ’11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month’, when the guns fell silent and World War 1 came to an end in 1918. PROGRAM Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

The Solti Centenary Concert

The renowned World Orchestra for Peace honors with this very special concert the 100th birthday of ist founder Sir Georg Solti – celebrating the story of Solti‘s musical life with works that were of special significance, such as MOZART’s Figaro overture STRAUSS’ tone poem Don Juan, the Adagietto from MAHLER’s Symphony No. 5, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and select arias and ensembles from operas by MOZART and VERDI. It is presented and linked from the stage by his widow, Lady Valerie Solti. The concert features Valery Gergiev as conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace and worldclass soloists Angela Gheorghiu and René Pape together with outstanding young alumni of the Solti Foundation and the Solti Accademia di Bel Canto established after his death.

World Orchestra for Peace at the BBC Proms

The 150th anniversary of the birth of Gustav Mahler in 2010 gave rise to a number of celebratory performances of his works. For its program at the fabled London BBC Proms in August 2010, the World Orchestra for Peace under Valery Gergiev chose the master’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. In the words of London’s The Independent, ‘the World Orchestra for Peace gave exemplary performances’ of the Mahler symphonies. The demanding soprano solo part in the Fourth is impressively sung by Camilla Tilling. At the opening of the Fifth, the Mariinsky Theater’s trumpeter Timur Martynov provides a lustrous, golden fanfare. ‘A rapt Valery Gergiev […] sculpted the closing Adagietto like a sacred object of veneration.’

The Armed Man – Concert for Peace

The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins is the most performed work by any living composer. This performance is the largest ever staged and was uniquely performed in synchronisation with a specially commissioned war-archive film reinforcing the narrative of the work – the build up to war, war itself and the consequences of war. Projected on to five giant screens, the film delivers a poignant backdrop to the moving musical narration providing the audience with a powerful and emotional multimedia experience. In this truly unique historic occasion Sir Karl Jenkins conducts The World Orchestra for Peace and around 2,000 singers from nearly 30 countries who joined together to Sing for Peace in Berlin.