Dennis Russell Davies last appeared in Ann Arbor with the Bruckner Orchester Linz in a program featuring Angélique Kidjo performing a new song cycle by Philip Glass. Now he returns with his new orchestra, the Czech Republic’s Brno Philharmonic, which was founded in 1956 and serves as a living tribute to Leoš Janáček’s music.

Janáček was educated in Brno and spent most of his life there, and his extensive experience working with and composing for choirs was evident in his compositions. The Glagolitic Mass — so named because it was written in the oldest known Slavic alphabet — has only been performed once at UMS, in 1988, and is a patriotic masterpiece, more of a hymn to the Czech nation and Slavic culture than a religious or ecclesiastical tribute.