When it comes to large-scale Requiems, Dvořák’s contribution to the form – composed for the 1891 Birmingham Festival, at which the composer conducted the premiere – tends to be overlooked in favour of the operatic fire and brimstone of the Verdi. The last time Sydney Philharmonia Choirs presented the Czech composer’s take on the Latin Mass for the Dead was in the 1980s, and while the music doesn’t quite deliver the same punch as Verdi’s, this performance by the 350-strong Festival Chorus under Artistic Director Brett Weymark made a compelling argument for revisiting the work.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Photo © Keith Saunders

The choir’s hushed “Requiem aeternam” – massive forces bringing haunting depth to the soft choral texture – got the Requiem off to a spine-tingling start, following the muted strings’ pristine tracing of the chromatic ‘cross’ figure that threads through the work’s nearly two hours of music. From the quiet opening, it wasn’t long before the choir flexed its muscles on “Te decet hymnus”, giving the audiences a taste of the power to come in the terrifying Dies irae. If the text didn’t always come across clearly, such as in the fugue...