Kastalsky’s Requiem for Fallen Brothers receives a poignant Resurrection.

Naxos Classical Spotlight

Alexander Kastalsky’s Requiem for Fallen Brothers was written between 1914 and 1917, during World War I, a conflict that killed more than 20 million people and injured even more. Kastalsky achieved poignancy in his memorial by using melodies and texts from many of the countries involved in the war — Russia, Serbia, Italy, England, Japan, India and even the United States. By combining all these sources he created a beautiful, moving and truly global Requiem for those who lost their lives, and a postscript reminding us that suffering caused by war is universal. Raymond Bisha introduces a new recording of the work in which Leonard Slatkin directs an impressive line-up of mass choral and orchestral forces.