He has freedom because of the rhythmic discipline.. Most of us would say, Well, well adjust that when we hear it. observes Jones. All you can do is use musical instincts and question, Musgrave acknowledged. 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. Within those large sections, look for cadences to determine where the divisions are. While looking at structure, dont get distracted by the text, Jones counsels. 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. 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. 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. Maurice Durufl's Requiem: the best recordings, Britten's War Requiem: the story of how Britten came to compose his most famous piece. 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. Sergiu Celibidache, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Munich Bach Choir, Franz Gerihsen, Arleen Auger (1981, EMI, 88'). In the meantime, the second movement of what ultimately would become the German Requiem is believed to have originated that same momentous year when Brahms first rejected it as the slow movement of a piano concerto, then abandoned it as a slow scherzo for a planned symphony, and finally reworked it into a choral setting of "Den alles Fleisch" from the first Epistle of Peter. 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." WebAn analysis and overview of Johannes Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem. 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 ." Arturo Toscanini, NBC Symphony, Westminster Choir, Herbert Janssen, Vivian Della Chiesa (1943, Guild CD, Pristine download; 71'). As might be expected, the choral singing is rich and natural, with confident pacing. 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. It was his love for this art form. The most palpable point of distinction is with the far more prevalent Catholic requiem Mass. 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. 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. 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. Were going to do it anyway, Shaw decided. Many commentators have noted with great admiration Brahms' deep knowledge of the Bible. Natasha Loges is the head of postgraduate programmes and professor of musicology at the Royal College of Music. Bruno Walter, New York Philharmonic, Westminster Choir, George London, Irmgard Seefried (1956, Odyssey LP, Sony CD, 63'). Its performance direction, Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll (slow and full of longing), is an unusual tempo designation for Brahms. From there, he speculates, the piece grew gradually, a series of considered and rejected ideas. 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. Christiane Karg (soprano), Matthias Goerne (baritone); Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Daniel Harding. 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. This human focus, as well WebSDG is happy to present last recording issued from the 2008 Brahms: Roots and Memories tour, in which John Eliot Gardiner and his ensembles explored the music of Johannes Brahms. A compromise for the premiere was achieved by including the aria I Know that My Redeemer Liveth from Handels Messiah. He goes on to emphasize that since Brahms did not write for specific occasions, there is no one "authentic" way to play his music, and that the use of original instruments compels nothing old-fashioned, but rather enables rethinking and creation afresh. Perhaps in an on-going effort to plumb its depths, Brahms reportedly covered his copy with annotations. 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. 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'). However, circumstances were increasingly troubled at home in Hamburg. He found in that music qualities he was not finding in the music of his own time, says Musgrave. Inserting the Handel aria was clearly a sticking-plaster solution, so Brahms wrote a new fifth movement, for soprano solo and chorus, on the words: Now you mourn, but I will comfort you like a mother. The chorale lay at the root of the Requiem.. What impresses me now, as an older man, is seeing Shaw free to float, to make a vocal line. Hermann Abendroth, Radio Berlin Orchestra and Chorus, Heinz Friedrich, Lisbeth Schmidt-Glanzel (1952, Tahra CD, 76'). 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. The Wagnerians were telling you what the future was; Brahms was hobnobbing with scholars, unearthing music nobody knew. Musgrave dismisses the claim of Brahmss first biographer, Max Kalbeck, that the Requiem began as a cantata, instead favoring a somewhat related explanation from German conductor Siegfried Ochs. Musgrave notes that the result enabled Brahms to achieve the same pattern of integrating variations of familiar musical forms that characterizes all of his mature long-form works. 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. Historians have also argued for other possible associations: for instance, with the death of Schumann, Brahmss mentor and friend; with a broader humanist message; and finally, with a nationalist imperative. The primary stimulus appears to have come with Schumann's untimely death in 1856. In a perverse stroke of fortune, earlier releases of the Toscanini recording were sufficiently blurry so as to preclude perception of the actual words, thus, ironically, relegating the piece largely to musical abstraction and, in so doing, restoring its artistic integrity. Near the end of a life driven by passion and painstaking preparation, conductor Robert Shaw was completing a new English translation of one of his signature pieces, the Brahms Requiem. Her research interests include German song, concert history, 19th-century performance practice and gender studies, with a particular focus on the lives and music of Brahms and the Schumanns. He also held his first demanding job as conductor of the Vienna Singakademie, a role that exposed him to several centuries worth of choral repertoire. Given its vast performance tradition, its hard to pin down Brahmss intentions. 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. 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. 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. Take away the text. 2012-2023, Chorus America. The result was a close-knit fabric reflecting the truths Brahms drew from Christian tradition. 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 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. 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"). 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." While conductors views often evolve over time, at first it seems hard to reconcile such radically different perspectives arising within a mere six years. 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. That may have had something to do with family history. Recordings of Brahmss large-scale choral-orchestral works have to pass two acid tests: first, the balancing of massive structures so that the whole thing hangs together, neither rushing nor dragging;and secondly, the handling of texture, so that listeners can hear individual orchestral-vocal lines and timbres, but also enjoy the seamless fusion of the gigantic collective sound which give such works their meaning. The German Requiem bears the distinction of having had no less than three premiere performances. Indeed in terms of tempos alone this is quite possibly the most sizable variance among all known Toscanini performances of any given work. 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?" Herbert von Karajan: (1) Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Hans Hotter, Elizabeth Schwartzkopf (1947, EMI; 75'); (2) Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Singverein, Eberhard Waechter, Gundula Janowitz (1964, DG, 76'); (3) Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Singverein, Jos Van Dam, Anna Tomowa-Sintow (1977, Angel LP, 76'). 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. 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. Thus, George Bernard Shaw sniped that the German Requiem was fit for a funeral home and the 1873 Musical Times echoed that "the Philharmonic concert hall is not the place for a funeral service." The gathering, held just in advance of the 100th anniversary of Shaws birth, was a first for Chorus America. Try 6 issues for just 9.99 when you subscribe to BBC Music Magazine today! Robert Shaw rehearsing the Atlanta Symphony at Carnegie Hall. The performance was a huge success for Dietrich, it was simply overwhelming and Brahms was celebrated afterwards at a banquet. 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. George London adds a fine but subtle human touch as a bass, he has to strain at the very top of his range and thus magnifies the struggle expressed in the text written for a baritone. The pacing is a swift 65 minutes (and since this was a concert its speed cannot be attributed to pressure to fit segments onto 78 rpm sides), abetted by attentive articulation and ardent accentuation. Even so, while the tenor is fine, the soprano soloist is more grating than comforting, so you may want to invoke historical precedent and emulate the work's second premiere by skipping the fifth movement. WebThis book is intended to help those who are contemplating performing or studying the Brahms Requiem. Katharine Fuge (soprano), Matthew Brook (bass) Monteverdi Choir & Orchestre Rvolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner. 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. The text that Brahms fashioned is derived from the Old and New Testaments as well as the Apocrypha, with all but the fourth movement a blend of these sources. On December 1, 1867 the first three movements were given in Vienna. Indeed, the performers sound like they had something important to prove to assert the intrinsic and abiding musicality of their culture. 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. One doesnt have time not to do that, she said of his meticulous planning. For Brahms work on the German Requiem was cathartic; he told friends upon its completion: "Now I am consoled. 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. The composer was moving between cities, seeking professional opportunities. 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. 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. 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. But there is pathos here, too; each phrase breathes naturally, never sounding regimented. 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. 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. 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. The Symphony is joined by the Kalamazoo Bach Festival Chorus for a bit of Mozart and the concerts focal point: Johannes Brahms heartfelt Requiem to hope, courage, and the anticipation of joy. Recommended. Even the instrumentation can be somewhat variable; although the score is marked for a contrabassoon anchor, Brahms reportedly preferred an organ. Shaws rehearsals for a 1990 Carnegie Hall performance of the Brahms Requiem, captured on video and screened at the symposium, begin with the opening notes, but not with the words Selig sind. Instead, the singers intone One and two and tee and four and, one and two and tee and four and, one and. The technique, count singing, is often associated with Shaw. Singers were given numbers to represent their voice ranges, starting with 101 for the lowest bass, a tool Shaw used to adjust balances in advance, saving precious rehearsal time. WebBrahms: Ein deutsches Requiem. 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. The Brahms Requiem: Questions for the Conductor Along with questions about his musical and textual motivation, Brahms left several other issues to puzzle Recorded live at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 2008. Vocally, Brahms is as exhausting a piece as a chorus is asked to sing, he told the video interviewer. It is an ideal set-up for the solo soprano movement that follows. Take away the dynamics. But while using the same forces, Lehmann and Kempe exemplify two interpretive extremes within that tradition. Revisions led to an Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwartzkopf (1961, EMI, 69'). 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. The logic of the voice leading is as inevitable as if decreed from heaven., Shaw was famously obsessive in his efforts to understand composers intentions and distill them for his singers. What was going on in Brahmss life and work at the time he wrote the Requiem? Indeed, during rehearsals Brahms asserted a desire for even more openness: "I would happily omit the 'German' and simply say 'human.'". Ratzlaff remembers a letter he sent to his chorus following a problem-filled rehearsal during New Yorks Mostly Mozart Festival sometime in the early 70s. 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.". Natasha Loges explores Brahmss unique reflection on the journey towards the grave and the afterlife as she compares the best recordings of A German Requiem. WebAn analysis and overview of Johannes Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem. Also noteworthy was Shaws instruction that singers begin by count singing between pianississimo and pianissimo. Brahms crafted the structure of his German Requiem to bolster the impact of the disparate textual sources he had assembled. 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. WebSummary. R. Kinloch Anderson cites the ghostly sound of the opening as proof of Brahms' sense of orchestral color and the patter of harp, flute and pizzicato violins as his sensitivity to specific words (in this instance accompanying mention of raindrops). 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. At the time of World War II, Shaw was a New York playboy, according to Frink, and his brother was a military chaplain. WebIn 1865 Brahms was hit by a second death, that of his mother, a simple, honorable soul whom he adored. He solved all the challenges long before the first rehearsal of a piece in a way that made total sense to a singer.. As a result, Lehmann leaves an overall impression of implacable sadness, only occasionally relieved by especially prominent brass within the shallow sonics. The intense concentration and focus of this 1943 Toscanini concert is the converse of Mengelberg's more intuitive interpretive approach. The recording quality is decent and the only trace of the rapt audience is their light stirring between movements. However, Reinthaler pointed out a hitch, namely that none of the movements clearly stated Christian doctrine. A large chorus can be a mucilaginous mess. By April, he sent Clara Schumann two movements of the Requiem. Hans Gal recalled that Brahms first heard Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at about the same time and was overwhelmed with its monumental ideas and treatment. Mengelberg had no qualms about performing the German Requiem during World War II in its intended language (albeit in an occupied country) but, while Toscanini's 1937 BBC concert had used the original text, perhaps to assuage anti-German feeling at the height of the War his New York concert was in an English translation (although the following year he would lead a broadcast concert of Beethoven's Fidelio in the original German). 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? To return to the title, a further connotation addresses the issue of language itself. Daniel Barenboim, London Philharmonic, Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Edith Mathis (1979, DG, 79'). Abandoning the conventional Latin liturgy, he used his intimate knowledge of scripture to select 15 passages from the German Bible and the Apocrypha that would express his own beliefs. 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. It is especially directed toward conductors, but it is also useful for choristers and Like Shaw, Walter saves his most potent firepower for VI so as to emphasize its thematic importance in the overall structure, but unlike Shaw's dissipation of that energy he plunges into an equally energetic fugue.
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