Friede Anno 48

’The towers are burning, the church has been ransacked, the town hall lies in ruins, the strong have been hacked to death, the virgins defiled, and wherever we look we see fire, plague and death which breaks both heart and spirit.’

Karl Amadeus Hartmann uses bold colours to depict the image of the Thirty Years’ War, the consequence of religious strife throughout Europe. The composer’s only choral work sets poetry by Andreas Gryphius and culminates in a muted call for peace. Hartmann undertook a revision of the music in his cantata Lamento for soprano and piano in 1955.