The chief benefit of this recording, and it is not a small one,
is that it reminded me just what a wonderful work this is. As
masses for the dead go, this one is fairly sunny and optimistic,
perhaps because Dvorák wrote it not in response to any personal
grief but as a commission for the 1888 Birmingham Festival.
In view of the circumstance of its genesis and premiere, it’s
all the more of a shame that it is performed so infrequently
outside the Czech Republic as this deeply human work is bursting
with such wonderful music. There is tenderness in surprising
places, such as in the Sequenza with its gorgeous Ingemisco
and even in the Tuba Mirum, normally filled with such
wrath. The woodwind chorale at the start of the Offertorium,
the lovely interplay of voices in the Hostias, the great
fugue on Quam olim Abrahae and the beautiful, rapt conclusion
are only a small sample of the great riches that this work has
to offer.
The performance given here is satisfying but, to be blunt, nothing
special. The orchestral playing is good and benefits from the
live-ness of the occasion. The solo singing is very fine, but
the recording is hamstrung by an acoustic which, to my ears,
is frankly bizarre! All sounds good in the opening Introitus,
with choral singing that is accurate, clear and transparent,
but the entry of the soloists jars on the ear in a most alarming
way. They sound dramatically closer, more resonant and they
seem to be surrounded by a distracting echo that the rest of
the performers lack. It’s almost as though they were recorded
in a different acoustic and dubbed on later – not, of course,
the case – but that’s how odd it sounds. As well as being off-putting
it wrecks the moments when soloists and chorus combine, and,
for this among other reasons, the big climaxes sound muddy and
ill-defined. The chorus is very good indeed, especially in the
intimacy of the Pie Jesu, but they seem to be miked to
the detriment of everything else, even the orchestra.
Acoustics aside, the soloists are very fine indeed. The lustrous
soprano of Simona Šaturová floats beautifully over the
texture, and Jana Sýkorová’s mezzo is rich and fulsome. The
really exceptional voice, however, is the tenor of TomáŠ
černý, golden, burnished and very beautiful, injecting
a burst of Mediterranean sunshine into the texture. Peter MikuláŠ,
on the other hand, is a rather gravelly bass. Petr Fiala’s direction
is solid, but could have done with more fire in the moments
where the pulse should quicken, such as the Dies Irae.
So this is a solid performance, but its acoustic problems make
it a version you can’t really live with, especially when you
consider the strong competition.
Simon Thompson
Simona Šaturová (soprano); Jana Sýkorová (mezzo); TomáŠ
černý (tenor); Peter Mikulአ(bass) 
