FULL MATKA or MOTHER (Lukas Borzik) & VIA LUCIS (Ľuboš Bernáth) Bratislava 2025 Hilda Gulyás, Matúš Šimko

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: MATKA or MOTHER, ViaLucis  
• Composer: Borzik Lukas, Bernáth Ľuboš   
• Libretto: various  
• Venue & Opera Company: Slovak Philharmonic Concert Hall, Bratislava, Slovakia  
• Recorded: November 7, 2025
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Hilda Gulyás, Matúš Šimko
• Conductor: Ondrej Olos   
• Orchestra: Slovak Philharmonic  
• Chorus: Slovak Philharmonic Choir  
• Chorus Master: Petra Torkošová  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: filharmonia.sk  
• Date Published: 2025  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Program
  Lubos Bernath (1977)
  Symphony No. 2 “Via lucis” – premiere
  1. In the beginning was the Word.
  2. A luxuriant light
  3. And he had in his right hand

  Lukas Borzik (1979)
  Mother, symphony for soprano, tenor, mixed choir and orchestra – premiere
  1. Silence
  2. Listening
  3. Humility
  4. Joy
  5. Attention
  6. Waiting
  7. Balance
  8. Obedience
  9. Permanence
  10. Cleanliness
  11. Trust
  12. Mercy

  Two works with the subtitle of a symphony and an irreplaceable vocal component, with the participation of a choir and soloists, both with a spiritual theme, will open the next year of the New Slovak Music festival. In the symphony Via lucis, Ľuboš Bernáth was inspired by New Testament texts from the mystical Johannine tradition. The message of the work is “the author’s inner plea and appeal to return to the archetypal legacy of humanism among people, a return to dialogue and peaceful coexistence, the spread of goodness and love.” He lets excerpts from the Gospel of John and the Revelation of John sound in Latin.

  In contrast, in the symphony Matka, Lukáš Borzík sets the text to music in Slovak, in a series of twelve prayers to the Virgin Mary for the twelve virtues of silence, offering again a new perspective on the content of the concept of a symphony . A strong inspiration for Borzík was the icon of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Silence, placing her index finger on her mouth. It was made by a nun from the Benedictine monastery of Mater Ecclesiae on the small island of San Giulio in Italy. A copy of it went as a gift to Pope Francis, who hung it next to the main entrance of the Apostolic Palace and had the following written on the back in gold pen: “Do no harm with your mouth.”

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