Brahms: A German Requiem
Sir Simon Rattle
With their new recording of Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker once again embrace the 19th-century Austro-German repertoire on which the Orchestra’s reputation was established. The Rundfunkchor Berlin, soprano Dorothea Röschmann and baritone Thomas Quasthoff complete the top class line-up.
This recording, taped in concert at Berlin’s Philharmonie in October 2006, marks the first significant recording of this large-scale work to appear in several years, and follows in the historic footsteps of recordings by Otto Klemperer, Sergiu Celibidache, Klaus Tennstedt, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and other distinguished EMI artists.
In the words of Musical America’s distinguished Berlin correspondent, Paul Moor, “The manifold blessings of having probably the world's greatest symphony orchestra as one's hometown band include the recurring phenomenon of having almost excessively familiar works sound ever fresh and new. With our superlative Philharmonic that happened most recently October 26 with the German Requiem of Johannes Brahms conducted by Sir Simon Rattle … The prolonged hush from Berlin's sophisticated audience following the dying fall of the final notes in Berlin's Philharmonie spoke for itself.”
Throughout his life, Brahms was drawn to the themes of death and mourning but it was probably the death of Robert Schumann in 1856 that inspired him to compose Ein deutsches Requiem. Rather than being conventionally religious, Brahms was a passionate humanist and his requiem is a thoroughly Protestant work, featuring German-language Biblical passages that exclude all mention of Christ. In a letter to Clara Schumann, Brahms described ‘a kind of German requiem.’ The first sketches for his unique and monumental choral work were made in 1861. The first three movements were performed in Vienna in 1867, where they were met with hisses, not least because of the vernacular German setting. The composer put finishing touches to the sixth and seventh movements in 1866 and, two years later, on Good Friday, movements 1-4 and 6-7 were performed in Bremen. The death of Brahms’s mother in 1865 grieved him profoundly and led him to compose a tribute to her in what became the Requiem’s fifth movement, for soprano solo and chorus. The powerful and moving work, in the form we know it today, was premiered at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1869.
Sir Simon said, “It’s hardly a Requiem, if you think in terms of hellfire and guilt and punishment, it’s a piece of consolation. It must have been very confusing for people at first, [also because the work is] an extraordinary mixture of romantic and really early music, not like anything else that had been written before, and not like anything else he ever wrote again. It’s a very personal and private work, very interesting psychologically. This is Brahms the young man, but a young man starting out, making one of his first large works. That’s what’s extraordinary, because it has such a certainty of form and touch and shape that you can’t believe [it was written by] a young man.”
The choir is the main protagonist in this monumental work, its German text sung here by the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the oldest radio choir in Germany, which enjoys a close relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle. The soprano soloist in the celestial fifth movement is Dorothea Röschmann, who has made a name for herself in recent years with her interpretations of the great Mozart operatic roles, as well as in performances of works by Bach, Handel, Wolf, Wagner and Stravinsky. Thomas Quasthoff is a popular Berliner Philharmoniker guest artist, who has previously joined Sir Simon and the Orchestra in recordings for EMI of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and Beethoven’s Fidelio.
Sir Simon Rattle has made more than 70 recordings for EMI in an association that dates back to the 1970s. His most recent releases with the Berliner Philharmoniker include Holst’s The Planets plus Four Asteroids (newly commissioned works by Saariaho, Pintscher, Turnage and Dean), Shostakovich's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 14 with Karita Mattila and Thomas Quasthoff, violin concertos of Shostakovich and Prokofiev with Sarah Chang, Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben and Le bourgeois Gentilhomme, Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and Debussy’s La mer. Sir Simon and the Orchestra also recorded the soundtrack to the recently released film Perfume, the Story of a Murderer.
In February and March 2007, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic perform works by Haydn, Janáček, Adès, Dvořák and Mahler in Berlin, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Paris, London and Brussels. From 31 March to 9 April they will be in residence at the Osterfestspiele Salzburg, performing Wagner’s Das Rheingold and orchestral works by Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Brahms, Dvořák, Prokofiev and Janáček.
Johannes Brahms
A German Requiem
Dorothea Roschmann
Thomas Quasthoff
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle
Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) Op. 45
1 I. Selig sind, die da Leid tragen (Zemlich langsam) 9:55
2 II. Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras (Langsam, marschmässig) 14:14
3 III. Herr, lehre doch mich (Andante moderato) 9:13
4 IV. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (Mässig bewegt) 4:54
5 V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit (Langsam) 7:35
6 VI. Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt (Andante) 10:43
7 VII. Selig sind die Toten (Feierlich) 10:30
