Dvořák : Requiem

Dvorák’s decision to write a Requiem was not motivated by the death of someone close to him, or by a premonition of his own death.   It was simply a commission from a music festival for a work 'of first importance'.  His London-based publisher, Alfred Littleton (Novello), suggested he might like to write a Mass for the Dead.

The world premiere of his Requiem was held on 9 October 1891 during the Birmingham Music Festival with the composer himself on the conductor’s rostrum.   The second performance was also in the UK, early the following year in Manchester.   The work seemed to exceed all expectations with music critics lauding it as one of the most powerful settings of the Mass for the Dead.

Dvorák divided the liturgical text into two main sections.  The first, an image of the Last Judgement, has eight parts of a prevailing sombre tone.  The second comprises five parts which bring an atmosphere of solace and conciliation.   Unlike the composer’s Stabat Mater (the first piece of music sung by the newly-formed Wimbledon 1914 Choral Society in its debut concert in March 1915), each part of the Requiem is conceived as a through-composed stream of music, without enclosed choral or solo “pieces”.

Tickets at reduced rates are available for anyone in full-time education.

Location

Southwark Cathedral
London Bridge, London, London SE1 9DA

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