Hearing the Requiem in 1837

Abstract After a lengthy series of logistical and bureaucratic missteps, the Requiem was heard for the first time at the Invalides in 1837. Audience members and music critics were eager to hear a work that had been in the making for some time, and curiosity abounded. Critics looked forward to hearing a work that was to be, at least for some, so religious that it might spur the reestablishment of a national school of sacred music. Did the Requiem live up to these expectations? What did the audience hear, and what was their response? This chapter follows the path of the Requiem from commission to premiere and engages with the long-held critical chestnut that music set for liturgical purposes must sound, in a word, sincere. Therein lay the crux of what audiences expected from Berlioz: how was the Requiem heard at its premiere, and how were those sounds analyzed by critics and the press soon thereafter?