On the 1st of December 2022, excellent conductor Hartmut Haenchen conducted the Orchestra and Chorus of the Carlo Felice Opera in Genoa in a highly evocative concert. During this concert, Willem Jeths' "Mors Aeterna" got its very first Italy premiere alongside pieces by Brahms, Beethoven.
In the recent review by Roberto Iovino on the L'Invito we read about the performance as follow:
There was a common thread linking the three scores presented yesterday evening in the symphonic concert conducted at the Carlo Felice by the excellent Hartmut Haenchen: the acceptance of death, in a secular vision of resignation to one's destiny... (Roberto Iovino, L'Invito, 2nd Dec. 2022)
Mors Aeterna has been composed in 2015 and got performed many times over the past years. However, the recent performance in the Opera Carlo Felice was the first live performance of this work in Italy. In his review, Robert Lovino reflected on the piece as followed:
...the first Italian performance of Mors Aeterna, a very interesting work by the contemporary Dutch composer Willem Jeths, present in the hall: a work with a non-avant-garde writing, very well orchestrated, with a strong emotional impact, well received by the large audience present, finally, in the hall." (Roberto Iovino, L'Invito, 2nd Dec. 2022)
You can read the full review on L'Invito website:
You can listen to the complete Mors Aeterna recorded by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra:
click on the album to get redirected to Spotify.
More information about the concert: