ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE
*Antonin DVORAK* (1841-1904):
Requiem op.89
Ilse Eerens _soprano_
Bernarda Fink _alto_
Maximilian Schmitt _tenor_
Nathan Berg _bass_
*Collegium Vocale Gent*
Royal Flemish Philharmonic (deFilharmonie)
Philippe Herreweghe
If there was one country where Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) saw his greatest successes, it was certainly England. In 1890, after performances of his immensely popular _Stabat Mater_, several symphonies and two oratorios to Czech texts, he started work on a new Latin composition commissioned by the Birmingham Festival, the _Requiem op. 89_. Why Dvorak choose to write a requiem mass precisely at a time when life was so good to him is food for speculation. Its almost positive mood of comfort and acceptance, with quiet grief outweighing any horror of the Day of Judgement, is striking and a stark contrast to how his contemporaries such as Berlioz and Verdi viewed the requiem.