Dvorák: Requiem & Symphony No. 8

Among the activities undertaken by the Vienna Singverein to commemorate its 150th anniversary during the 2008–9 season was a series of performances of Dvorák’s Requiem with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the direction of Mariss Jansons. The concert recordings of the two performances given in Amsterdam in February 2009 have been integrated here to create a captivating presentation of this rarely recorded work by the Bohemian master.

On this release, Jansons, who has a special affinity with Dvorák’s late works, has paired the Requiem with the recording of the Eighth Symphony, composed during the period directly preceding the genesis of the Requiem.

Of particular note in Jansons’s interpretation of both works here is his amazing attention to detail which is so characteristic of his performances but which in no way impedes the development of extended, overarching climaxes.