REQUIEM (Dvořák) Heidenheim 2021 Michael Maria Mayer, Julia Stone, Tilman Lichdi, Tijl Faveyts

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Requiem  
• Composer: Dvořák Antonin  
• Libretto: traditional  
• Venue & Opera Company: Pauluskirche, Heidenheim, Germany  
• Recorded: July 30, 2021
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Michael Maria Mayer, Julia Stone, Tilman Lichdi, Tijl Faveyts
• Conductor: Marcus Bosch  
• Orchestra: Cappella Aquileia  
• Chorus: Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: IDAGIO  
• Date Published: 2021  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• Video Recording from: IDAGIO     FULL VIDEO
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• STREAM IT from IDAGIO

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

This year, the original music of the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno will be heard in St. Paul’s Church: Antonín Dvořák is the national composer in our neighboring country. Unlike many previous works by Mozart, Schubert or Bruckner, the Requiem was not written for a liturgical celebration, but for a concert performance. The commissioner was not a bishop or a cardinal, but the “Birmingham Triennial Music Festival”, where the work was premiered. The Latin text of the Requiem is usually sung and played in six sections as part of the liturgy; here the composer has divided it into no fewer than thirteen movements.

DARK COLORS
Dvořák paid particular attention to the tonal colors of his composition: in addition to the use of bass clarinet and cor anglais, the men’s choir is divided into four – here the gentlemen of the festival choir of the OH! show all their skills. The colorfulness of the music is supported by unusual instruments such as a gong and bells. The intense passages are reminiscent of religious ecstasy, the quiet spread a contemplative mood.

GREAT OPERA?
Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, written sixteen years earlier, is sometimes referred to as an “opera in ecclesiastical garb” because it uses operatic means effectively and dramatically. In Dvořák’s work, too, it is easy to hear that the composer is not “only” a symphonist, but also a master of music theatre. The Requiem is given great unity by the bracketing of a “leitmotif” (Wagner and Dvořák themselves would certainly have protested against this designation!): A sighing figure runs through almost all movements as a motto, as a violent dissonance in “Dies Irae” or alone from the Trumpet played in the “Tuba mirum”.

This masterpiece, played far too seldom in Germany, is great music.