‘La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus’

‘Do not wonder that I am so religious. An artist who is not could not produce anything like this. I like praying there at the window when I look out on the green and at the sky. I study with the birds, flowers, God, and myself.’ Religious music makes up a relatively small part of Dvořák’s oeuvre, but its quality should not be underestimated. Dvořák composed his great Requiem for a quartet of soloists, chorus, and orchestra in 1890, at the beginning of his important late creative period. Although he remains far from the theatricality of a Verdi or Berlioz, in this work he frequently achieved a similar intensity and drama, while towards the end it is dominated by quiet melancholy. Hartmut Haenchen, the ultimate specialist in the great Romantic repertoire, brings out the full richness of this rarely performed work better than anyone.