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EMI Classics to release 'Instant' CD

Through the LiveHereNow initiative and in partnership with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre and Town Hall & Symphony Hall, Birmingham, EMI Classics will make live recordings of Hector Berlioz’s Requiem (Grande messe des morts Op. 5) on 14 and 15 October, available on CD on the same day.

A strictly limited number of CDs burned each night will be available for purchase immediately after the concerts.

Berlioz’s Requiem is a commemoration of the fallen heroes of the French Revolution as well as a celebration of the glory of the French nation. Its monumental vocal and instrumental forces, including four brass bands, will make the concerts on 14 and 15 October two of the largest which Symphony Hall has presented. Valery Gergiev conducts the combined orchestras and choirs of the CBSO and the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg. The concerts will also include Prokofiev’s Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution.

British and Russian musicians will work together on this innovative project. Andrew Jowett, Director of Town Hall & Symphony Hall says, “During Symphony Hall’s long association with the Mariinsky company we have enjoyed some very memorable concerts. However, this new opportunity, which brings together Gergiev’s great opera company with Birmingham’s own celebrated symphony orchestra and chorus may yet surpass them!”