ANTONIN DVOŘÁK

 

Requiem

 

Lisa Milne - soprano

Karen Cargill - mezzo soprano

Peter Auty - tenor

Peter Rose - bass

 

London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir / Neeme Jarvi

 

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, 7 February 2009

 

Rarely heard in concert at all, the Requiem by Antonín Dvořák captured on this CD from a live concert seems a near-forgotten masterpiece. Dvořák scholar Gervase Hughes cites this work for four soloists, chorus and orchestra as one of the composer’s finest sacred creations, ‘a deeply moving expression of faith on the part of a composer whose religious conviction never wavered’. It’s a conviction stamped through the composer’s illuminating, fervent score.

 

‘Opportunities to hear Dvořák's grand “Requiem” are few and far between, so this was undoubtedly a special occasion… In this first-rate performance, the intense power of the “Requiem” shone as it has probably rarely – if ever – done before… Under Neeme Järvi's inspirational direction, the London Philharmonic played magnificently. The brass was impressively solid, often sending a shiver down the spine – especially when aided, as in the menacing but never histrionic ‘Tuba mirum’, by the glorious Royal Festival Hall organ.’ Classical Source, February 2009

 

Total playing time: 84:45

 

London Philharmonic Orchestra 2cds LPO0042