All the score's details are heard clearly in an ideal balance without highlighting even the superstar soloists are placed back in the proper perspective, so that Fischer-Dieskau's effortless conviction and Schwartzkopf's sweet modesty are embedded within, rather than dominating, their sections. Johannes rushed home but was too late to see her. A choral introduction of meandering harmonies searches for earthly stability ("We have no continuing city, but we seek one to come"), the baritone raises the prospect of resurrection ("Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not sleep "), the chorus excitedly proclaims victory ("Death, where is thy sting? The sixth movement is the perfect dramatic corollary to the second, Goernes surprisingly tender utterance of We shall be changed leading to tremendously exciting choral singing of Death, where is thy sting?. Take away the text. The title Robert Shaw rehearsing the Atlanta Symphony at Carnegie Hall. That was his custom, say the conductors who worked with him, but Shaw found it absolutely essential with the Requiem. At that point there were six movements, settings of Lutheran Bible texts Brahms had collated himself, which trace a trajectory from suffering to acceptance: the first movement opens, Blessed are they who mourn; the dramatic second movement opens by declaring that all flesh is like grass, but the word of the Lord endures; the third introduces the baritone soloist, who pleads with God for acceptance of his transience; the sunny fourth, the most popular standalone number, contemplates the beauty of heaven; the original fifth movement matches the second, setting the famous The trumpet shall sound, and continuing to demand Death, where is thy sting?; reconciliation is achieved in the last movement with the words Blessed are the dead. I don't mean to be overly critical leaving aside comparisons to Furtwngler, this is a fine, compelling performance in its own right that underlines the score's drama and rises to a stirring, triumphant VI that leaves any thought of morbidity far behind. Brahms crafted the structure of his German Requiem to bolster the impact of the disparate textual sources he had assembled. He was not so much setting texts as realizing them, he told symposium participantsa comment that inspired fellow faculty member Leonard Ratzlaff to chime in: This text is replete with tone painting, he said, citing the sudden key change in the sixth movement after the baritone sings in einem Augenblickin the blink of an eye. For Ratzlaff, who teaches choral conducting at the University of Alberta, it provided an object lesson for the conductors in the room: At some point, its important to have a micro look at the text, what it inspired the composer to write, harmonically and melodically., In the 1870s the Brahms Requiem received endless performances, says Musgrave, including premieres in London in 1871 and New York in 1877. WebThe analysis has been made from the vocal score, with a piano accompaniment arranged from the orchestral parts, as published by G. Schirmer. Musical illustrations are performed on the violin and piano. The harmonic progression and sarabande-like rhythm evoke the Requiems second movement funeral march. Critics, though, were less enchanted, often tempering admiration of its universal message and its integration of old and new musical elements with concern over its deliberately attenuated range and overriding sobriety. Matthias Goerne is a superbly racked soloist in the third movement anyone who has helplessly contemplated their own mortality can relate to the Promethean despair (and the rage, in the repeated section) of that molten, burnished voice. A guide to Brahmss A German Requiem and its best The second movement the most overwhelming, almost Verdian number begins with an exquisite weariness, evoking the dragging feet of slowly processing mourners. A German Requiem (Johannes Brahms) - LA Phil How do its origins, Brahmss choice of texts, and the works performance history contribute to our understanding? More likely is that by shunning Latin for the vernacular, Brahms intended the work to be more accessible to modern audiences. The fourth movement is tidily sung, but it is the orchestra that truly shines here, each timbre emerging, glowing from the overall texture, whether high winds, or rounded brass. These two historically-informed recordings bring us squarely to the question of the performance characteristics that Brahms would have wanted to hear. That, in turn, points to the sheer modernism of the work, not only reflecting the emerging secular spirit of the time to probe traditional material for individual expression, but launching the egoistic attitude of personal viewpoints that would come to challenge and even override established faith (as in Benjamin Britten's 1961 War Requiem and Leonard Bernstein's 1971 Mass). Perhaps to be heard above the timpanist's din, according to Specht the "singers were intent on shouting each other down wildly" and became "distorted into a deafening agglomeration of sound." The pace picks up in the last two movements, beautifully conveying the mourners healing. He adds that Celibidache was inspired by his Zen belief system and by the philosophy of Plotinus, for whom the highest aspiration was a state of profound passivity, in which inner perception transcends logic and rational knowledge. Requiem I prefer the earlier one, if only for the massively potent timpani that galvanize the II climaxes (and suggest control-room manipulation drums just can't be that loud!). 45 (German: Ein deutsches Requiem, nach Worten der heiligen Schrift) by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, and a soprano and a baritone soloist, composed between 1865 and 1868. 1 in C minor, by Johannes Brahms. Wonderfully played, sung and recorded, everything fits together superbly. It gave the composer a sense of how massive the piece would be. The underlying problem may have reflected a dispute over Brahms generally; as Edwin Evans noted in 1912: "no one seems able either to like or to dislike him only a little. Morton Ennis agrees, noting that Brahms had composed works associated with death and mourning throughout his life, and so there is no reason to associate the German Requiem with any specific death neither Schumann's nor his mother's. According to Craig Jessop, another faculty member, No one conducted more performances of the Requiem or lavished more care on it than Robert Shaw. The former music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and current dean of Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University. The orchestral sound is revelatory, evoking the austerity of a church organ without relinquishing a jot of emotional weight. When his brother was killed, Frink says his mother told him, That should have been you, Robert. It tortured him the rest of his life., People close to Shaw would put up with his difficult side because, says Jones, we knew that there was a more profound exposure to the music and exposure to him that was possible. Craig Jessop remembers him as a towering intellect, the likes of which I had never encountered. Brahms humbly suggests that all we can do is accept our unavoidable fate while life goes on for the benefit of the living, who must make the most of their brief time and pass along their deeds, findings, thoughts, hopes and wisdom as others have done before them. The fidelity is only fair, but it far outstrips Furtwngler's other extant recording at the 1947 Lucerne Festival (with Hans Hotter and Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, also on Music & Arts). It is both curious and disturbing that such an accessible work had to wait until 1947 for its first studio recordings clearly a sign of producers' low confidence in its commercial prospects. That same year had also seen him break off his engagement to Agathe von Siebold who, he later told a friend, was the last love of his life. Among relatively straightforward recordings, Kempe's timing of 76 minutes pushes the limit without losing the work's intrinsic sense of hopefulness, mainly (as did Abendroth) through injecting acceleration and emphasis into the climactic sections that are nestled amid extreme reflection. From the very outset, the German Requiem has found favor, both with choral societies (especially amateur ones), who appreciated its relatively undemanding technical requirements and stamina, and with audiences, who undoubtedly welcomed its warm messages of comfort and hope. Take away the dynamics. ], Willem Mengelberg, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Toonkunst Choir, Max Kloos, Jo Vincent (1940, Turnabout LP, 65'). Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwartzkopf (1961, EMI, 69'). Robert Shaw: (1) RCA Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, James Pease, Eleanor Steber (1947, RCA; 65'); (2) Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Richard Stilwell, Arleen Auger (1983, Telarc; 70'). For a taste of Furtwangler's magic in modern sound, Barenboim comes quite close, with nearly identical tempos, beautifully shaped phrases, thundering climaxes (with hugely imposing timpani Furtwangler reportedly asked his timpanist if he was playing as loudly as he could and when assured that he was demanded that he play even louder), and deep spirituality he invests the mourners' opening with a wondrous sense of longing by stretching each phrase and magnifies the explosive triumphant outbursts of the climaxes with deeply serious preparatory passages. While sorting through Schumann's estate, Brahms came upon a bare reference to a German Requiem and felt compelled to take up the task. Brahms' compilation of texts reflected his own religious tenets. Johannes Brahms's many masterpieces have a confidence and ebullience, an irresistible lyricism and melodic charm, and show no sign of losing their appeal more than 120 years after his death. Even though Mengelberg culminates with a slowly unfolding and majestic VI fugue and a ruminative finale, the overall impression is not one of mournful regret, but rather a contemplative celebration of life. As a result, Lehmann leaves an overall impression of implacable sadness, only occasionally relieved by especially prominent brass within the shallow sonics. LSU Digital Commons | Louisiana State University Research But there is pathos here, too; each phrase breathes naturally, never sounding regimented. Hermann Abendroth, Radio Berlin Orchestra and Chorus, Heinz Friedrich, Lisbeth Schmidt-Glanzel (1952, Tahra CD, 76'). Brahms responded that hed deliberately omitted such passages. In Powerpoint style Dr. Ted gives us an introduction to Brahms greatest choral work. Unlike most large religious works, the German Requiem was not written in response to a commission or for a public event, and so efforts to trace its inspiration are somewhat diffuse. With the NBC concert, we confront the vexing issue of translation. Karajan's first two stereo Berlin Philharmonic remakes (he made yet another with the Vienna Philharmonic (1985, DG), which I haven't heard sorry, but even I have my limits) are quite similar, hovering between profundity and aloof abstraction. Wilhelm Furtwngler, Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Bernhard Snnerstedt, Kerstin Lindberg-Torlind (1948, Music & Arts CD, 79'). The structure of the Requiem is such a powerful thing, the way the end brings back the beginning through inversions and use of identical text: Selig sind. Ann Howard Jones took this opportunity for some practical advice: Structural analysis is the nitty-gritty of our work. The analysis starts big and goes lower and lower, she says. WebThis is a strategy Brahms will use several more times during the German Requiem. Brahms: A German Requiem - An Analysis - YouTube The difference seems especially bewildering, as the Tragic Overture that opened the concert is paced the same as, and is rendered even more intensely than, a June 1935 Toscanini BBC rendition (and both are a minute faster than his official 1953 NBC recording of the Overture). She is a regular critic for BBC Music Magazine and broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and BBC TV. The dead march which follows ranks with his most outstanding accomplishments: haunting of key, with violins and violas subdivided into three parts each, and over a relentless distant tattoo in the timpani. Yet even in the 20th century, Specht castigated its fugues as "petrification of rough-hewn themes" and as "music for the eyes" that doesn't move the soul, even while conceding that "never before had the departed been sung to rest with a lullaby of such solemnity and consoling beauty." Thus, Armin Zebrowski infers from the fourth movement's blessing of those who dwell in the house of the Lord a reciprocal meaning of God dwelling within us and thus giving rise to true peace, which, in turn, magnifies the significance of the tranquil musical setting. The third movement begins with a vulnerable solo baritone imploring God for knowledge of his fate, poises on a musical brink as he agitatedly asks "What is my hope?" Brahmss A German Requiem: Reconsidering Its Biblical, That aspect of the Requiem deserves its own attention. Christiane Karg (soprano), Matthias Goerne (baritone); Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Daniel Harding. Robert Shaw and the Brahms Requiem | Chorus America Shaw was drawn to the texts Brahms selected; he dissected and researched all of them. Jessop remembers especially how Shaw responded to the text from Revelation Brahms used in the final movement: I dont know if the soul is immortal, but I do know your good works will follow after you.. While Furtwngler's transitions are smooth and imply structural logic, Abendroth's tend to be quicker and sometimes sudden, thus tending to fragment the piece rather than integrating it. WebBrahms: Ein deutsches Requiem. Yet the title Johannes Brahms bestowed upon his Ein Deutches Requiem ("A German Requiem") conveys a world of genuine meaning. He's often described as a "secular humanist" (perhaps synonymous with "agnostic"), but grew up in the Lutheran church and would have had strong sentimental, if not religious, connections to the Three more movements may have been completed as a cantata by 1861, but then work appears to have lapsed until early 1865, when Brahms was jolted once more by the death of his beloved mother. This really is Shaw's third and final recording having prepared it, he died shortly before the actual sessions, which then were realized by his colleague. Never dull but rather purposeful and focused, it flows inexorably. As summarized by Michael Murgrove, the overall focus of the work is on comfort, hope, reassurance and reward for personal effort rather than the judgment, vengeance, sacrifice and overt references to Christian symbolism that characterize the Latin requiem mass. So he would prepare obsessively, anticipating issues with balance, pitch, and rhythm, and so on. The result was a close-knit fabric reflecting the truths Brahms drew from Christian tradition. By the end, one feels no different from the start. Speaking of slow performances As summarized by Patrick Lang in his CD liner notes, Celibidache's Brahms was thoroughly serious, weighty and deep, with controlled, internalized passion and severe aristocratic stillness governing all its emotions. This becomes evident at the very outset, as Abendroth, like Furtwngler, begins in shadowy mists but then leaves subtlety behind by turning the subtle <> markings of the second set of "selig sinds" at measure 29 into major sonic swells. She related the memory in mid-April to an audience that could well appreciate its poignancy, an intimate group of choral musicians assembled in Atlantas Woodruff Arts Center for the Robert Shaw Centenary Symposium on the Brahms Requiem, presented by Chorus America and hosted by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (ASO). Many accounts of this recording tend to apologize for the need to overcome post-war deprivations (excuse me while I dry my tears), but what emerges is a fine combination of beauty and fervor that radiates sincerity. A 1983 remake with Shaw's Atlanta forces, which by then he had led for 15 years, boasts a superlative early digital recording and a somewhat broader overall pace that trades the sweep and momentum of the earlier reading for a sense of well-being. Thomas Allen brings a rugged grief to his solos, while Margaret Prices sound is both richly resonant and angelic. The performance was a huge success for Dietrich, it was simply overwhelming and Brahms was celebrated afterwards at a banquet.
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