With steady tempos and intense moderation, it's hard to characterize this reading, but that's intended as a high compliment. 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. The miniature score These include: John Eliot Gardiner, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Monteverdi Choir, Rodney Gilfrey, Charlotte Margiono (1990, Philips CD, 66'), Roger Norrington, The London Classical Players, Schtz Choir of London, Olaf Br, Lynne Dawson (1992, EMI CD, 63'). 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. Indeed, Schumann had urged Brahms to "direct his magic wand where the massed forces of chorus and orchestra may lend him their power." But while using the same forces, Lehmann and Kempe exemplify two interpretive extremes within that tradition. 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.". Brahms was a structural composer, according to Musgrave, and as such he would think about the totality of the work. For Shaw, rehearsal time was precious. Balances favor the chorus, which sings with precision and meticulous enunciation, thus tending to suggest an emphasis on mechanics over emotion and presenting more bones than flesh. Take the fundamental issue of timing Brahms provided metronome indications for the Bremen premiere, but he later had them removed, and in any event they are far faster than any conductor is willing to accept thus, for the 158-bar common-time first movement he specified 80 quarter notes to the minute, which would yield a performance of just under 8 minutes; Gardiner takes 9:50 and Norrington 8:48, while among traditional conductors the fastest are Walter's 8:52 and Shaw/RCA's 9:15; the average hovers between 10 and 11. The recording quality is decent and the only trace of the rapt audience is their light stirring between movements. The Brahms Requiem: Questions for the Conductor Along with questions about his musical and textual motivation, Brahms left several other issues to puzzle 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. Brahms had long carried the idea of writing a requiem. Yet in the more segmented movements he manages to differentiate the individual sections, thus maintaining their integrity and distinctive character, even while integrating them through logical transitions. So he would prepare obsessively, anticipating issues with balance, pitch, and rhythm, and so on. On the one hand, performances in the local language would seem take the composer's desire for accessibility to its logical conclusion, enabling audiences to understand the words and better appreciate their musical settings. 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. WebAbstract: Johannes Brahms was the first composer to claim the requiem genre without utilizing the Catholic Missa pro defunctis text. 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). On December 1, 1867 the first three movements were given in Vienna. 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. Murgrove suggests that Brahms viewed the Bible as more of a literary work than a theological statement a repository of human experience and wisdom and the highest manifestation of thought and feeling. There was ample precedent for that approach, but none among major religious works of the time. For this first European studio German Requiem, producer Walter Legge reportedly passed up the opportunity to preserve Furtwngler's glowing account and instead gambled on his young wartime rival. 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. But from the vantage of the complexity and cynicism of the seemingly insoluble problems of our current world-view, is that really a problem or more a hallmark of sophistication? By April, he sent Clara Schumann two movements of the Requiem. However, circumstances were increasingly troubled at home in Hamburg. Some of my colleagues think Im crazy, admits Musgrave, but Im convinced Ochs was right. Brahms was an intensely private man; he left no written credo, and we will never know exactly what his religious beliefs were. He was confirmed in the Lutheran church as a youth and knew the bible thoroughly; it would remain a key source of inspiration for him throughout his life. In any case, if he began the Requiem by intending to create a chorale-based work in the tradition of Bach, he soon abandoned the idea, says Musgrave, because that influence reappears only in the sixth movement. Wonderfully played, sung and recorded, everything fits together superbly. 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." The contradictions in Brahmss theologyreligious skepticism combined with undeniable spiritualityappealed deeply to Robert Shaw, according to Craig Jessop. WebThis is a strategy Brahms will use several more times during the German Requiem. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making it Brahms's longest composition. 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. James Levines 2004 recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra would reinforce that view it is dirge-like without grandeur, unrelentingly static. 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. Robertson further notes that there is no official Lutheran funeral service, nor even a prayer for the dead, thus reflecting Martin Luther's teachings that faith alone frees believers from sin and that, once saved, their entry into heaven is automatic. Four years later, this magnificent work fulfilled the prophecy of Brahmss genius made by Claras husband Robert in 1853. 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. In the second Kargs sound is dramatic, if not ideally matched to Goerne, but again it is the silky-smooth orchestral-choral sound that wins over. But perhaps the most significant but overlooked word in the title is the first and least prominent: "Ein" ("A"). While conductors views often evolve over time, at first it seems hard to reconcile such radically different perspectives arising within a mere six years. 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. All you can do is use musical instincts and question, Musgrave acknowledged. 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. The former is 28 bars long and tonicizes E-flat major. He would never do that. In working on a piece, Shaw guided his singers through the music painstakingly, one facet at a time. Regardless of their means and intentions, the Gardiner and Norrington readings bridge past and present and are compelling evidence, if any indeed is needed, that Brahms' German Requiem speaks with as much force to new generations as to his own. Maurice Durufl's Requiem: the best recordings, Britten's War Requiem: the story of how Britten came to compose his most famous piece. She is a regular critic for BBC Music Magazine and broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and BBC TV. My only quibbles are a slightly stodgy pacing of the VI fugue and a bad splice before its final "Where is thy sting." Bruno Walter, New York Philharmonic, Westminster Choir, George London, Irmgard Seefried (1956, Odyssey LP, Sony CD, 63'). Hardings sense of structure in this 2019 recording is assured and persuasive, evoking a slow, dignified but steady move from the depths of grief into a bruised but courageous renewal. WebAn analysis and overview of Johannes Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem. 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. Yet the two realizations, while both exceptional, are far from identical the Norrington is notably leaner, crisper and faster and with good reason our only indications are indirect and thus somewhat speculative. The pace picks up in the last two movements, beautifully conveying the mourners healing. He was the most significant figure in our profession for 40 years.. WebA German Requiem, Op. WebA Conductor's Analysis of Johannes Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem, Opus 45 - Sep 06 2022 Brahms's "Ein Deutsches Requiem" - Aug 13 2020 Brahms's Requiem the present study will contribute an Schenkerian account of musical processes that are integral parts of the work's philosophical dialectic. 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. 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. 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. The harmonic progression and sarabande-like rhythm evoke the Requiems second movement funeral march. Joseph Braunstein contends that Brahms was deeply affected by Schumann's suicide attempt the next year and wanted to express his emotions in a large-scale work but realized he was not yet prepared and abandoned the effort. Where does music begin? The choir sounds both substantial and luminous, with crystalline German, effectively navigating the long and demanding fugues. In order to clarify Brahms' contrapuntal textures, Gardiner's orchestra uses Viennese instruments mellow-sounding horns, shorter oboes and brighter kettledrums played with hard sticks as well as such techniques of the time as expressive string bowing with sparing vibrato. It was not immune from the 19th century temptation to find specific fanciful references in place of musical allusion; thus, biographer Richard Specht writes of the opening: "One has the impression of seeing a tranquil procession of white-clad women walking slowly past sacred pools toward a chapel ." He was accused of micromanaging, but that couldnt be more wrong, says Mackenzie. 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 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. WebIt is an oratorio, a choral setting of biblical texts, and has little to do with the Latin Requiem Mass. To Musgrave, the familiar fourth movement, Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, seems an odd man out. Did Brahms compose it at an earlier time? What impresses me now, as an older man, is seeing Shaw free to float, to make a vocal line. The recording is somewhat crude and uncomfortably poised between clear vocals and hazy instrumentals. Olaf sound. Shaw changed all that., That Shaw would be working on the Brahms Requiem as he neared his death seems almost preordained. An October 30, 1937 Toscanini concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (and soloists Alexander Sved and Isobel Baillie) presents an astonishing contrast in which he unfolds the Requiem with extreme reflection, basking in a remarkable 82 minutes. Thats the sign of scholarship.. Nor was Brahms likely to have known an obscure 1818 Deutsches Requiem that Franz Schubert had written for his brother. 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. WebIn 1865 Brahms was hit by a second death, that of his mother, a simple, honorable soul whom he adored. What's in a name? Symposium chair Andr Thomas, director of choral activities at Florida State University, dreamed that for the participants, it would feel something like sitting around the table with the renowned mentor Nadia Boulanger, a chance for them to spend four days immersed in the genius of Brahms and one of his greatest interpreters, Robert Shaw. Daniel Barenboim, London Philharmonic, Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Edith Mathis (1979, DG, 79'). 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. Some may regard Toscanini's manner as a model of sophistication and integrity, mostly refusing to inject himself into the splendor of the music itself and enabling its structure to emerge in our minds, but it may strike others as too impersonal and abstract; I tend to prefer a more proactive approach that directly communicates a deeper range of human feeling. 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." Take away the text. The rest of the year was preoccupied with concerts and other compositions, but Brahms returned to the Requiem in early 1866. Each movement is appreciably slower, often strikingly so the opening sprawls to 1210 compared to 925 in his 1943 NBC broadcast, and the finale to 1305 vs. 940 in 1943. Its greatest message, says Musgrave, is a message of comfort, especially apparent in the fifth movement soprano solo, which quotes Isaiah: I will comfort you as a mother would. Although Brahms did not like people asking him about it, Musgrave says everyone in the composers circle believed he wrote this movement for his own mother, who died in February 1868. At the time of World War II, Shaw was a New York playboy, according to Frink, and his brother was a military chaplain. I used to say, My job is to get the water ready for him to walk on. I nearly drowned many times. Jones remembers that even a little thing like stumbling over a name would cause him to take it out on us. Yet doubt as to whether it might have been misattributed seems dispelled by a nearly comparable 1935 New York Philharmonic Toscanini concert. It was his love for this art form. Yet, a translation that reflects the tight interdependence of Brahms' music and the sheer sound evoked by his original words seems elusive, if not utterly futile. 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. 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." Even the pastoral IV surges with a radiant spirit and strongly assertive choral singing. Beyond the expected mixed reaction from pro- and anti-Wagner partisans, for whom Brahms soon would become a symbol of conservative tradition, the performance ended in disaster, when the percussionist apparently mistook a dynamic indication in the score as ff and drowned out the concluding third movement fugue with a deafening pedal point. At the time, Shaw wrote, Bachs first concern was to affirm and quicken a faith. The primary stimulus appears to have come with Schumann's untimely death in 1856. Jessop considers it the pinnacle of craftsmanship in composition for chorus. 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. But Faur was quite explicit about how to go about achieving this freedom. He was absorbing musical As Andr Tubeuf quipped, Vienna may have lacked everything at the time except music. One doesnt have time not to do that, she said of his meticulous planning. In Powerpoint style Dr. Ted gives us an introduction to Brahms greatest choral work. 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.". In keeping with the two soloists' respective functions, the baritone aptly quakes with excitement, while the soprano is serene. Legend has it that Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, who sings her comforting solo with ravishing nurture, selflessly sang along with the chorus sopranos to bolster their efforts. 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." And as is equally apparent from the timings, the "American" tradition, if indeed there was one, favored far quicker tempos and a feeling of overall vitality. It was with these purposes in mind that I Sometimes he communicated these ideas through letters, many of them included in the 1996 Shaw biography, Dear People. 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. H. Kevil explains that 19th century ears, accustomed to attempts to express emotional reality, found Brahms' level approach a sign of sterile pedantry. The Cologne Radio Choirs German is remarkably clear, but they still offer an appealingly old-fashioned sound, smoothly eliding between notes and avoiding all sharp edges. The memory will stay with me all of my life.. The most palpable point of distinction is with the far more prevalent Catholic requiem Mass. Try 6 issues for just 9.99 when you subscribe to BBC Music Magazine today! April 10, 1868. WebLSU Digital Commons | Louisiana State University Research By 1872 its text had been translated into English. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work But he destroyed his sketches of the work, so scholars like Musgrave are left to puzzle over what inspired this unique masterpiece and how it all came together. Shaws longtime personal assistant, Nola Frink, was by his side as he struggled to find the right syllable for every note. Without belittling others' valid proactive and personalized approaches, this is a performance for the ages that can be heard repeatedly and cherished by future generations. 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. 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. 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. Take, for example, the opening phrase, "Selig sind." 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). Although the fifth movement was not performed till 1869, ten months after the Bremen premiere, Musgrave does not believe it was a late addition to the other six movements, as some have claimed. Christiane Karg (soprano), Matthias Goerne (baritone); Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Daniel Harding. WebNot surprisingly, the title of Requiem has at times been called into question, but Brahms stated intention was to write a Requiem to comfort the living, not one for the souls of the 2012-2023, Chorus America. 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. Sergiu Celibidache, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Munich Bach Choir, Franz Gerihsen, Arleen Auger (1981, EMI, 88'). These two historically-informed recordings bring us squarely to the question of the performance characteristics that Brahms would have wanted to hear. Because she was associated with Shaw for so long, she feels a responsibility to help younger conductors understand why we revere this man so. 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. Craig Jessop, Utah Symphony, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Nathan Gunn, Janice Chadler (1999, Telarc; 69'). Brahms once stated it would be as well to call the work A Human Requiem. WebBrahms chose the texts that were dearest to him. By the end, one feels no different from the start. Even so, by distending the first and last movements to an even greater extent than the others, Lehmann suggests a complete mantle of peace descending on both mourners and deceased, albeit without the underlying sense of living that is an central component of Brahms' conception. In advance of a 1972 performance of the Brahms Requiem, he wrote to the Atlanta Symphony Chorus, As artistsand as human beingsour concern is not with how we feel about death or the textual imagery of the German Requiem, but how Brahms felt about these things. Never dull but rather purposeful and focused, it flows inexorably. The concert opens with a movement from Beethovens Tenth (yes, Tenth!) WebTo make a thorough study of these lessons is to became a better teacher or student, and also to became a more discerning musician. 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. Hermann Prey sings the heart-rending baritone solos as if his life depended on it, while Elisabeth Grmmers mature, warm sound offers the reassurance and dependability often missing from more girlish renditions. He has freedom because of the rhythmic discipline.. Brahms, though, with no liturgical purpose, was not bound to any particular content or order and could fashion the entire work according to musical logic. Abendroth's concert is superficially similar to Furtwngler's but with enough crucial distinctions to highlight why Furtwngler's magic is unique and eludes others who might be tempted to emulate him.
