Perhaps in this intensely passionate score, the greatest Czech composer pours out his most profound and heartfelt writing, standing alongside his greatest works, and surpassing his other choral works. This is an opportunity to experience a work of great profundity. Its composition followed the death of his fourth, and last-remaining child – he was to have more who survived him. It is a work of deep beauty and pathos from its extended first movement, as Mary laments the death of her son Jesus at the foot of the cross. Dvorák’s composition stands together with other great settings of the text from Palestrina, Rossini and Verdi, through to Penderecki and Szymanowski. Dvorák’s creation was on a more expansive scale than all of these others. Following the success of its first London performance in December 1883, Dvorák himself was invited to conduct it in the Royal Albert Hall three months later in March 1884. It marked his first major success outside his home country.