Ever since the death of Rossini in 1868, Verdi had been occupied with a plan to set the funeral mass to music. His initial idea was that a massive work should be created with each movement written by a different Italian composer. The plan, however, never came to fruition. Nevertheless, Verdi did compose his own part, the Libera me movement, and after it emerged that no one would be taking on the Dies irae, he set about creating outlines for that as well. Two years later, he began to develop the other movements too. The work was accelerated by the death of Alessandro Manzoni, one of the towering figures of Italian literature, in 1873. By this time, it was specifically to Manzoni's memory that the composer intended the work, which was finally performed for the first time in Milan's Basilica of San Marco on 22 May 1874. The performance was an enormous success - and the Requiem has been popular all over the world ever since. Characteristic of the work throughout are its operatic melodiousness, the unmatched richness of colours in the scoring, a style of expression brimming with emotions and passions, depictions of visual evocativeness and the employment of contrasts of extraordinary power.

Presented by: Hungarian National Philharmonic