Dvorák Mass in D major / Elgar's The Music Makers - City of Leicester Singers

Dvorák’s Mass in D major was instigated by Josef Hlavka, later the founder and first president of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In 1886 Hlavka had a new chapel built at his summer residence in Western Bohemia. When the chapel was to be consecrated, he asked his friend Dvorák’ to write a new mass for the occasion. Dvorák’, who thought very highly of Hlavka, was glad to oblige and wrote a mass for solos, choir and organ. He completed the work within three months.

The Music Makers, Op 69, is a work for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra composed by Edward Elgar. It was dedicated to "my friend Nicholas Kilburn". It was first performed at the Birmingham Festival on 1 October 1912, conducted by the composer.

The text of the work is the 1874 poem Ode by Arthur O'Shaughnessy, which Elgar set in its entirety. He had been working on the music intermittently since 1903, without a specific commission.