Vatican, 23 November, 2025
The acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, attended the concert of the Kosovo Philharmonic and the Kosovo Opera Choir at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in the Vatican, where the oratorio La tempesta sul lago by Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci was performed, under the direction of Maestro Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli.
He said that it is a great honor to be there, in a place where sacred music has shaped the spiritual and artistic life of the world for centuries, emphasizing that in the Vatican, through the Sistine Chapel Choir and the legacy of composers such as Palestrina, Allegri and Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci, music has long served as a form of prayer, meditation and devotion.
After the concert, the Prime Minister said that this performance once again placed Kosovo with dignity in one of the oldest and most selected spaces of sacred music. He added that last night our historical musical lineage was clearly reflected, from Niketë Dardani, to the founding work of Lorenc Antoni and to Saint Teresa of Calcutta/Mother Teresa, who in her youth sang in the choir led by him.
Full Speech of Prime Minister Kurti:
Your Eminences, distinguished guests, dear friends,
It is an honour to be here, in this evening in a place where sacred music has shaped the spiritual and artistic life of the world for centuries. In the Vatican, through the Sistine Chapel Choir and the legacy of composers such as Palestrina, Allegri, and Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci, music has long served as a form of prayer, contemplation, and devotion.
Tonight, we have the exceptional honour to hear the profound creative voice of Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci, known to many as “the musician of the Popes”. We will witness this through his powerful oratorio “La tempesta sul lago”. Cardinal Bartolucci, a composer and conductor who dedicated his life to the musical service of the Church until his passing in 2013, created this oratorio for soloists, choir, and orchestra. It is performed this evening by the Choir and Orchestra of the Kosovo Philharmonic together with the Choir of the Kosova Opera, under the direction of Maestro Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli. This marks the second time the Kosova Philharmonic has had the honour to perform in the Vatican.
When we look back into the musical memory of our country, we find figures whose work naturally resonates with the tradition that is honoured here. Among the earliest is Niketas, known in our lands as Niketë Dardani, whose Latin hymnody, forms part of the first strata of Christian song in the wider Dardanian region. His presence reminds us that, from an early time, the spiritual and musical language cultivated in this city was already present along our own spiritual paths.
Much later, in the twentieth century, Lorenc Antoni gave this shared heritage a concrete and lasting form in Kosova. Through his ensembles, his writings, and his systematic preservation of traditional song, he created the first organised framework through which classical and choral music could be taught, practiced, and passed from one generation to the next. In a crowning achievement which we all share today he founded the first music school in the city of Prizren in 1948. His contribution stands in a natural continuity with the sacred-musical culture whose centre has long been here. It is also meaningful to recall that, in her youth, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, cousin to our first composer Lorenc Antoni, sang in the choirs he directed, and stands as a luminous reminder of the spiritual depth shared across our region.
Throughout more than seventy-five years since Antoni’s pioneering work, choirs, orchestras, educators, and institutions have built a sustained musical life in Kosova. The artists who perform this evening, the instrumentalists, choir singers, soloists, and their conductor are a living continuation of that lineage. Their presence here, alongside the legacy of Cardinal Bartolucci and within the care of the Bartolucci Foundation, is a factual expression of how this shared heritage has developed and flourished.
In this basilica, where chant, early notation, and polyphony were cultivated and refined, one is reminded of how music preserves and extends memory. From the first neumes that guided the singing of a community, to the sacred works of the twentieth century, and to Bartolucci’s “La tempesta sul lago” heard tonight, sacred music draws a continuous line that is both spiritual and deeply human. This evening becomes another phrase in that line that is shared between the musical institutions of the Holy See and the musicians of Kosova.
Allow me to close with the words of Saint Augustine, whose reflection continues to illuminate both prayer and song: “Qui bene cantat, bis orat.” (The one who sings well, prays twice.)
Thank you. Grazie. Ju faleminderit.
