A Russian orchestra conducted a concert, dubbed ‘With a Prayer for Palmyra’, in Syria’s ancient Roman amphitheatre in Palmyra, just a few weeks after it was recaptured from ISIS.

Russian maestro Valery Gergiev led the orchestra through pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev and Rodion Shchedrin, in front of a crowd of Russian soldiers, government ministers and journalists, as BBC reported.

This was the first performance since the theatre was used by ISIS to hold public executions.

The maestro described the concert as a protest against the barbarism and violence exhibited by Islamic State militants who had used the city’s Roman amphitheatre to execute prisoners, while Russian president Vladimir Putin also addressed the audience, by video link from his Black Sea residence in Sochi.