Although he conducted only one of the three performances on this album, the Biblical Songs, Op. 99, the spirit of the great Jiří Bělohlávek lives throughout the music here. The last work Bělohlávek conducted before his death in 2017, in London, was the Dvořák Requiem, Op. 89. What's heard here is a version with Czech performers conducted by Jakub Hrůša, a close Bělohlávek associate. The live performance, in Prague's Rudolfinum, was recorded in September of 2017, in memory of the recently deceased Bělohlávek, and the performers understood very well what he would have wanted: deliberate, straightforward construction of this massive Wagnerian work. Hrůša and the Czech Philharmonic get the operatic quality abundantly on display in the "Tuba mirum," for instance, and the Prague Philharmonic Choir has never sounded better. In the Biblical Songs, Bělohlávek keeps the focus on bass Jan Martiník in this singer-friendly work. The Te Deum, Op. 103, was conducted by Hrůša a few months later, in December, and it's an exceptionally joyous reading as if to say that the traditions Bělohlávek so ably maintained will continue. Although he is present only in part here, this is a worthy addition to the remarkable collection of recordings made by Jiří Bělohlávek at the end of his life.