Tickets

Programme

Antonín Dvořák
Requiem, op. 89

Cast

Simona Šaturová soprano
Štěpánka Pučálková mezz-osoprano
Benjamin Bruns tenor
Jan Martiník bass

Prague Philharmonic Choir
Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster

Luzerner Sinfonieorchester
Michael Sanderling conductor

The first performance of Dvořák’s Requiem in the Czech lands took place on March 12, 1892, in Olomouc, followed the next day in Kroměříž by the Žerotín Choir, and on April 25, 1892, the work was performed for the first time in Prague at the National Theatre, conducted by Adolf Čech. Dvořák set the entire Latin text of the Requiem Mass to music, which he divided into two parts. The entire composition is permeated by a chromatic motif that first appears at the beginning, and the highest emotional impact is still achieved in the quartet Recordare. As one critic wrote, Dvořák’s music “speaks the language of tones in a way that convinces only those who have been given the art to glimpse the deepest recesses of the human soul.” Another reviewer, commenting on the work’s more restrained approach, noted how, in a piece by a modern composer like Dvořák, it was surprising that he avoided the temptation to dramatize the Dies irae section, which naturally invites heightened dramatic tension and might easily lend itself to theatrical exaggeration. Dvořák, however, prudently and wisely avoided this danger. Dvořák’s Requiem does not have the same pathos as Verdi’s Messa da requiem. It is not tragic, nor does it convey a fear of death. The farewell to the world is sorrowful, but it is also reconciliatory, viewed as an inevitable fulfillment of God’s will.