Vocally, Brahms is as exhausting a piece as a chorus is asked to sing, he told the video interviewer. Nola Frink must know how that feels. Hermann Abendroth, Radio Berlin Orchestra and Chorus, Heinz Friedrich, Lisbeth Schmidt-Glanzel (1952, Tahra CD, 76'). Indeed, the only oblique allusion to Christ is the opening line ("Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted"), a brief quotation from the Sermon on the Mount. The memory will stay with me all of my life.. I saw in that moment what motivated his entire life. The German Requiem bears the distinction of having had no less than three premiere performances. Yet doubt as to whether it might have been misattributed seems dispelled by a nearly comparable 1935 New York Philharmonic Toscanini concert. He solved all the challenges long before the first rehearsal of a piece in a way that made total sense to a singer.. Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwartzkopf (1961, EMI, 69'). Robert Shaw considers the result "a most sensitive gleaning of the Christian scriptures of a profound, loving and most personal order its own argument and its own organism" whose "spirit lies in the selection, not just the treatment, of the text." The study highlights the four main movements of this symphony, the language in which musical ideas are presented, the rhythm, repetition of exposition. The requiem emerged from a decade of turmoil. During this period of his career, Brahms was paying close attention to Bach, Schtz, and the Lutheran choral tradition. She is a regular critic for BBC Music Magazine and broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and BBC TV. The chorale lay at the root of the Requiem.. In notes for the release, Shaw wrote that he had been torn for 50 years between viewing the German Requiem as a dramatic/narrative work "that might best connect with American performers and audiences in their own language" and a work that was primarily lyric, poetic or contemplative and that would be more revealing in the original. The worst thing you can do is start by trying to sing a piece on pitch. The most palpable point of distinction is with the far more prevalent Catholic requiem Mass. Perchance through his title Brahms is modestly telling us that he did not purport to have created "the" definitive German requiem nor any other sort of authoritative proclamation, but rather sought to offer just one among infinite approaches toward understanding and grappling with the ultimate mystery of life and accepting the inescapable tragedy of our mortality. There was ample precedent for that approach, but none among major religious works of the time. As conductors, we so often have to push singers to make the rhythm. Brahms's setting is framed by an instrumental prelude and postlude. 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. 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. The piece unfolds patiently and beautifully, with due attention to detail instead of the customary blur of growly bass, movement I begins with its joined quarter notes articulated just enough to add rhythmic support to the coalescing haze. Brahms was a structural composer, according to Musgrave, and as such he would think about the totality of the work. 2012-2023, Chorus America. The harmonic progression and sarabande-like rhythm evoke the Requiems second movement funeral march. This overview is Jessop was singing for Shaw in France, and a concert of Brahms songs all related to evening, was to take place in a Toulouse cloister. Certainly, the Requiem, completed just before the Franco-Prussian War, touched German listeners, symbolising the dead of war as well as signalling the emergence of a new empire. The vibrato-free Orchestre Rvolutionnaire et Romantique may divide listeners, but the payoff of this live performance from 2008 is the fabulous recorded sound quality across the range, from the throbbing subterranean bass which opens the work to the piercing, high solo winds of the inner movements. Murgrave even questions the relationship of the fifth movement to Brahms' late mother, and suggests that it was simply too personal and intimate to have been given public exposure until after the success of the rest of the work had been assured. The opening movement begins with a warm, flowing instrumental figure derived from a Georg Neumark hymn that had been a favorite of Bach. Brahms crafted the structure of his German Requiem to bolster the impact of the disparate textual sources he had assembled. He also prefaces the German Requiem with a fine bonus Brahms' early Begrbnisgesang ("Burial Song"), a sensitive but rather routine setting for choir, brass and winds of a Lutheran hymn that speaks of eternal life, even while ending with a somber reminder of death's inevitability. He was the most significant figure in our profession for 40 years.. 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?" Brahms' compilation of texts reflected his own religious tenets. It is especially directed toward conductors, but it is also useful for choristers and Also noteworthy was Shaws instruction that singers begin by count singing between pianississimo and pianissimo. The composer was moving between cities, seeking professional opportunities. The rest of the year was preoccupied with concerts and other compositions, but Brahms returned to the Requiem in early 1866. The stillness and tranquillity of the final movement brings a satisfying sense of closure and healing. Brahms began to write his A German Requiem roughly midway through the long, tortured process of composing his First Symphony, a work begun in 1854 but not premiered until 1876. He must have been preoccupied with it for a long time. Steven Ledbetter agrees that although the text belongs to no formal liturgy of any church, it "nonetheless represents a deeply felt response to the central problem of human existence.". Although Brahms had al-ready worked on A German Requiem, his WebA German Requiem, To Words of the Holy Scriptures, Op. Beautifully balanced and richly recorded, he injects just enough animation to communicate a fully-integrated view of the piece and Fischer-Dieskau's expressive fluidity is wondrous. After its official premiere in Bremen on Good Friday, 1868, Ein deutsches Requiem made Brahmss name, Musgrave told symposium participants. The most common English renderings of "Blessed are" or "Blessed they" generate multiple problems at the very outset. Olaf sound. Shaw changed all that., That Shaw would be working on the Brahms Requiem as he neared his death seems almost preordained. Scholars note that in 1636 Heinrich Schtz had composed a Teutsche Begrbnis-Missa ("German Funeral Mass") which he had described as "a Concerto in the form of a German Burial Mass" and which had used the same opening text as the German Requiem, but Brahms may not have known it. WebThroughout the Requiem Brahms contrasts the transience of human existence with the eternity of God, and he is not shy about underlining the difference. He was accused of micromanaging, but that couldnt be more wrong, says Mackenzie. However, circumstances were increasingly troubled at home in Hamburg. Take away the text. The fourth movement, an interlude reflecting the contentment of living with God, begins and ends simply and serenely, bracketing a double fugue that emerges to expand upon the thought of praising God. Daniel Barenboim, London Philharmonic, Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Edith Mathis (1979, DG, 79'). With steady tempos and intense moderation, it's hard to characterize this reading, but that's intended as a high compliment. Bruno Walter, New York Philharmonic, Westminster Choir, George London, Irmgard Seefried (1956, Odyssey LP, Sony CD, 63'). And yet through the audible haze emerges an exceptional complement to the Toscanini outlook to which we are accustomed. Three movements were trialled unsuccessfully in Vienna, but some listeners recognised that it was perhaps too austere, too Bach-Protestant for the pleasure-loving Viennese. Indeed, one of Bach's very first cantatas (his 1707 "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit," now numbered 106), is believed to have been written for a funeral and has been cited as a miniature model for the German Requiem, as it combines isolated lines from the Psalms, Isaiah, Luke, Acts, Ecclesiastices, Revelations and a 1533 Reissner hymn into a beautifully integrated 20-minute meditation comprised of an instrumental prelude, choruses suffused with soprano, alto, tenor and bass solos and a concluding chorale. By April, he sent Clara Schumann two movements of the Requiem. He sent her the fourth movement, and described the first and second movements. 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. Where does music begin? With respect to dynamics, Brahms appeared to favor a wide range, asking that the first vocal entry be as soft as possible, although the score is merely marked p. As for his preferred size of the performing forces, Brahms worked with a wide scale, ranging from lean provincial ensembles to festival choruses many hundred strong, although he ordered 200 vocal parts and 12 of each string part for the Bremen premiere, thus suggesting a far smaller orchestra than choir (Norrington uses 64 of each). Katharine Fuge (soprano), Matthew Brook (bass) Monteverdi Choir & Orchestre Rvolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner. Perhaps the key observation was by Alec Robertson, who called it "a flawed work" for the very reason that "one is left asking questions that cannot be answered." Musical illustrations are performed on the violin and piano. Eduard Hanslick, who ultimately would bestow upon the work the supreme praise of being a worthy successor to Bach's B Minor Mass and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, likened the ending to "rattling through a tunnel on an express train" and wrote: "After long expanses of delicately lyrical, poetic music, the piece seemed to end by clubbing the audience about the head." For me, his mature confidence not only imbues the text with an appropriate nobility and assurance but compels appreciation for Brahms' achievement, inviting us to infer what we will from this fine, attentive presentation of the composer's materials. Because Brahms chose his own text to express his personal sentiments, Musgrave says text and music go hand in hand in a way they cannot when a composer is assigned a text to work with. But he didnt want us to know much about it. An 1865 letter to his dear friend Clara Schumann provides the first recorded evidence of its existence. 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. In notes to his companion set of the Brahms symphonies, Norrington summarizes his approach as using forthright, spacious tempos subject to sensitive but simple variation, clear textures, wind-favored balances, and phrasing with warmth, sparkle and passion. 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. So he would prepare obsessively, anticipating issues with balance, pitch, and rhythm, and so on. Brahms, though, based his work on his own selection of texts from the Lutheran Bible and, unlike in a requiem Mass, shifts the focus from the dead to the living. Composers of Latin requiems could inject themselves only partially into the final product, as each section had to illustrate, if not advance, the dogmatic progression as well as the prescribed wording of each required section a mournful Requiem aeternam, a fiery Dies irae, a somber Rex tremendae, a fearful Lacrymosa, a comforting Agnus Dei, etc. For example, most of the tempo markings in early versions were simply Andante. The very opening heralds an especially devoted reading, as each orchestral phrase is layered with cumulative power, and we feel the weight of each word as Furtwngler constantly fine-tunes his tempos and smoothly integrates a vast dynamic range from gentle whispers to hair-raising climaxes through exquisite transitions. The requiem mass was a venerable musical genre by the time Brahms began to compose his, but Brahms requiem would be unlike any other. Instead of setting the traditional Catholic, Latin text used by Mozart Berlioz, and countless others, Brahms created his own highly personal version from excerpts of the Lutheran Bible and apocrypha. Sometimes he communicated these ideas through letters, many of them included in the 1996 Shaw biography, Dear People. But when sprawled over 80 minutes and without the special touches of a Furtwngler, Abendroth or Bernstein it tends to just drag more than fascinate. The second movement the most overwhelming, almost Verdian number begins with an exquisite weariness, evoking the dragging feet of slowly processing mourners. You cant use that voice to begin rehearsals. For the Requiem, or any piece, he refused to tax his singers voices to achieve balance. Sergiu Celibidache, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Munich Bach Choir, Franz Gerihsen, Arleen Auger (1981, EMI, 88'). You can unsubscribe at any time. WebAlbum: Songfacts: "A German Requiem, To Words of the Holy Scriptures," is a large-scale choral work composed between 1865 and 1868 by German composer Johannes Brahms. WebBrahms chose the texts that were dearest to him. Indeed in terms of tempos alone this is quite possibly the most sizable variance among all known Toscanini performances of any given work. The timings, both overall and of individual movements, are somewhat deceptive, as his fast sections are very rapid, while the slow portions tend to be quite measured. 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. He was a huge presence, physically and spiritually as well., In what amounted to a benediction for the symposium, Jessop recalled a Shaw story related to Brahms. Shaws approach facilitated his singers understanding of structure and their ability to avoid mistakes. Rethinking Brahms - Jul 24 2021 He says it was no accident Shaw was drawn to the Requiem. He found in that music qualities he was not finding in the music of his own time, says Musgrave. Brahmss choice of texts is central to the Requiems originality. The gathering, held just in advance of the 100th anniversary of Shaws birth, was a first for Chorus America. 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. 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). The second movement combines thoughts of mortality ("All flesh is as grass"), patience, the permanence of God and the joy of redemption. Never dull but rather purposeful and focused, it flows inexorably. The former is 28 bars long and tonicizes E-flat major. WebTo make a thorough study of these lessons is to became a better teacher or student, and also to became a more discerning musician. Reversing the harsh judgments of flat consistency in earlier Grove editions, he considers VI to "contain passages as expressively declamatory as anything in the 19th century." The concert opens with a movement from Beethovens Tenth (yes, Tenth!) Natasha Loges is the head of postgraduate programmes and professor of musicology at the Royal College of Music. For Shaw, rehearsal time was precious. 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. Neither makes much grammatical sense nor fits the rising notes comfortably, both begin with a sudden "bl" sound rather than the soft "s" that gently launches the original, the sibilance falls on the only syllable lacking one in the original, and the extended third note of the music sounds more soothing with Brahms' sustained "in" than with an "ar" or "ey" vowel. Although his earlier recordings had been in German, Shaw often advocated translations and opted for one here, but in deference to Brahms' own use of the Lutheran Bible he felt that "a version in English would need roots in language as deep as those in music, and as exalted in beauty," and thus turned to "our noblest linguistic heritage" the King James Bible, to whose words he adhered as closely as possible, although some syllables are stretched or repeated to fit the music. The recording is somewhat crude and uncomfortably poised between clear vocals and hazy instrumentals. From the outset, Mengelberg extends the logic of Brahms' musical architecture to a microcosmic scale, sculpting each phrase of the opening movement with constant swells of sound and adjustments of tempo to create mini-climaxes that animate the generally level terrain. From the opening notes of this 1995 performance, we know that this will be a serious, dignified experience, characterised by a large-scale choral-orchestral sound and spacious, grand tempos. A sort of German Requiem this was the unformed compositional plan that the 32-year-old Brahms announced to his friend Clara Schumann in a letter 1865. The preparation of a new edition of the work by the team of the Brahms Collected Edition has taken decades but Brahms-lovers can rejoice that it is finally in print. Because she was associated with Shaw for so long, she feels a responsibility to help younger conductors understand why we revere this man so. Indeed, the performers sound like they had something important to prove to assert the intrinsic and abiding musicality of their culture. 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." 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. Others dwell more figuratively on the relationship of text and music, as when regarding the pedal point that accompanies the conclusion of the third movement as symbolizing the firmness of faith. Shaws message, as paraphrased by Ratzlaff, read, As far as Im concerned, its fine whether you come in or not. It opens with a solemn march in time (derived from the slow scherzo of the abandoned symphony), lightens with hope, proclaims the word of God in bold unison, and ends in varied radiant assertions of "ewige Freude" ("everlasting joy"). Schumann's widow Clara proclaimed the finished work as the fulfillment of her husband's prophesy and after a planned Schumann commemoration fell through, Brahms wrote: "You ought to know how much a work like the [German] Requiem belongs to Schumann.". Yet the title Johannes Brahms bestowed upon his Ein Deutches Requiem ("A German Requiem") conveys a world of genuine meaning. In Powerpoint style Dr. Ted gives us an introduction to Brahms greatest choral work. 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. The recording quality is decent and the only trace of the rapt audience is their light stirring between movements. WebThis book is intended to help those who are contemplating performing or studying the Brahms Requiem. [All listings below are in the format of: conductor, orchestra, chorus, baritone soloist, soprano soloist (year, source, timing in minutes). If he realized a certain passage was going to require a little more from the first altos, for example, hed assign some second sopranos to join them for a few measures. The contradictions in Brahmss theologyreligious skepticism combined with undeniable spiritualityappealed deeply to Robert Shaw, according to Craig Jessop. Indeed, Schumann had urged Brahms to "direct his magic wand where the massed forces of chorus and orchestra may lend him their power." 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. Some Others While the stereo era has produced many rewarding and enjoyable recordings of the German Requiem, most strike me as of somewhat lesser interest than the ones above. This has led to much controversy in the best way to present his intentions. In keeping with the two soloists' respective functions, the baritone aptly quakes with excitement, while the soprano is serene. Even so, the earliest roots of the German Requiem extend back to Brahms' great mentor, the influential composer/critic Robert Schumann, who had published a glowing article hailing Brahms as a musical genius shortly after meeting him in 1853. One of the most fascinating consequences of the composer's free selection of his libretto is the variety of interpretations his text has stimulated. All you can do is use musical instincts and question, Musgrave acknowledged. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians construes the title mainly as a mandate to perform the work in the German language (although, ironically, the German Requiem is heard in translation far more often than any other religious work of comparable stature). Craig Jessop, Utah Symphony, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Nathan Gunn, Janice Chadler (1999, Telarc; 69'). But perhaps the most significant but overlooked word in the title is the first and least prominent: "Ein" ("A"). Similarly, the Andante con moto of the final movement was replaced with Feierlich (ceremonially) regardless of how it is done, it remains challenging even for experienced choirs. Fritz Lehmann, Berlin Philharmonic, St. Hedwig Cathedral Choir, Berlin Motet Choir, Otto Wiener, Maria Stader (1955, DG, 80'), Rudolf Kempe, Berlin Philharmonic, St. Hedwig Cathedral Choir, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Grmmer (1955, EMI, 76'). While I personally prefer a more vivid reading, I still have to admire the purity of concept and the extreme to which Celibidache molds the work to his unique vision. As Shaw pondered his own translation in 1999, Jessop assumes his motivation must have been the same as it was 40 years earlier when he created an English version of Bachs St. Matthew Passion. A large chorus can be a mucilaginous mess. The quotations and other factual information for this article are primarily derived from the following sources: Armin Zebrowski: "Brahms' German Requiem" (article in, R. Kinloch Anderson Karajan/Berlin (Angel SB-3838, 1977), William Mann Klemperer/Philharmonia (Angel SB-3624, 1961), Siegfried Kross Karajan/Berlin (DG 2707 018, 196x), Leonard Burkat Levine/Chicago (RCA ARC2-5002, 1977), Joseph Braunstein Bamberger/Hamburg (Nonesuch HB 73003 (1966), Karl Geiringer Haitink/Vienna State Opera (Philips 6769 055, 196x), H. Kevil Koch/Berlin RSO (Musical Heritage Society 3724/25, William S. Newman Barenboim/London (DG 2707 066, 1979), Walter Neimann Ormandy/Philadelphia (Columbia M2S 686, 1962), Robert Shaw Robert Shaw/RCA Symphony (RCA LM 6004, 1948), Andre Tubeuf and Alan Blyth Karajan/Vienna (EMI 61010, 1988), Robert Pascall Norrington/London Classical Players (EMI 54658, 1993), Steven Ledbetter Shaw/Atlanta (Telarc CD-80092, 1984), Robert Shaw Jessop/Utah (Telarc CD-80501, 1999), Patrick Lang Celibidache/Munich (EMI 56843, 1999), Martin Smith Gardiner/Orchestra Revolutionnaire (Philips 432 140, 1991), Eva Pinter Schuricht/Stuttgart (Hanssler 93.144, 2004), Roger Norrington his CD of the Brahms Symphony # 1 (EMI 54286, 1991).
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