Johannes Brahms
A German Requiem op. 45
Ruth Ziesak, soprano · Konrad Jarnot, baritone
Friedemann Winklhofer, organ
Münchener Bach-Chor · Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Hansjörg Albrecht, conductor
This live recording of Brahms’ „German Requiem“
gains even more intensity through the occasion of its
performance: on September 25, 2010, the Dominik-
Brunner-Foundation organized a memorial concert
for Dominik Brunner, the man who paid with his life
for his courageous defense of four children from attackers
in a Munich commuter train one year before.
The Munich Radio Orchestra, Münchener Bach-
Chor as well as first class soloists performed Brahms’
famous Requiem, which is based on texts from Luther’s
Bible, under the direction of Hansjörg Albrecht.
Brahms’ work is characterized by the fact that,
in contrast to the Catholic requiem, its texts do not
center around the dead, but on the survivors, or one
could say, on man in general. The bible verses that
Brahms chose concentrate both on consolation as well
as the awareness that death is an inevitable fact of life
for every human. The work clearly reflects Brahms’
own beliefs, fears and experiences and is thus a deeply
human and personal avowal in word and sound.
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
A German Requiem
To Words of the Holy Scriptures
for soloists, choir and orchestra op. 45
At the age of twenty-eight, Johannes Brahms
wrote on the back of his fourth Magelone
Romances opus 33 texts for an elegiac cantata
which he had compiled himself from the Old
Testament, New Testament and Apocrypha.
Solely in the German language. The idea of
composing elegiac music probably originated
five years earlier when Brahms’ greatest friend
and supporter Robert Schumann died, following
his attempted suicide and increasingly dark
spiritual and mental deterioration. Brahms’
mother died in February 1865. In April of
the same year he sent several sheets of music
to Schumann’s widow Clara including the
choral section of the fourth movement from a
kind of German Requiem, as Brahms described
it, with which I’m toying at the moment. Clara
soon encouraged him in this undertaking. She
also preferred the beautiful German words to
those in Latin. A rediscovery gave Brahms the
impetus to complete this project: whilst helping
his father to move house at the beginning
of January, Brahms found the sheet of music
on which he had written the texts. By summer
1866 he had completed six of the seven movements.
The work premiered on December 1 of
the following year in the Großer Redoutensaal
in Vienna; it contained, however, only three
of the six movements. The concert promoter
didn’t want to expose the public to any more
than this because Brahms, who was born in
Hamburg and had only recently moved to Vienna,
was as yet known only as a conductor
of Baroque music arrangements. Because the
work was dedicated to Franz Schubert, the second
half of the program was fittingly made up
of eight pieces from Schubert’s Rosamunde.
Movements I to IV, VI and VII were not
performed together until April 28, 1868, at a
performance in Bremen Cathedral conducted
by the composer. Brahms completed the missing
fifth movement in May; the third premiere
then took place on February 18, 1869 in a soldout
Leipzig Gewandhaus, providing Brahms
with sensational success and his breakthrough
as a composer. Philipp Spitta wrote to Brahms
saying that it was impossible to deal with the
work in a mere review. If I want to give someone
an appreciation of the work, I think I need to
write an entire book straight away. Instead of a
book, here are just a few thoughts on what still
makes this work an outstanding masterpiece in
Western music history.
The Brahms Requiem cannot be classified
in the usual categories. Even the title is confusing.
Why a German Requiem, although
no others had previously been written? What
is meant by German? Written in the German
language or Germanic in style, following German
traditions? Why “Requiem”, although
this Protestant composer from Hamburg had
not used the prescribed text formulas of the
Roman Catholic Church for the Requiem
mass? The work’s structure clearly showed that
it was not a cantata either. Even the work’s instrumentation,
at times scaled back to chamber
music dimensions and other times swelling
towards a choral and orchestral opulence,
defies categorization. This piece has a special
status within Brahms’ entire opus; it is unrivalled
and comparable to no other composition.
But above all it is the approach of the
composer himself, which gives this work its
uniqueness. He does not allow the bereaved
to implore, may God guide the souls of the
dead into the hereafter and have mercy upon
them. The sixteen Bible texts carefully selected
by Brahms deal with mourning, but also
hope; with the realization of man’s nothingness,
but also longing and faith. Rather than
intercessions for the dead, the work provides
comfort for the bereaved. Giving consolation
is the work’s central concern, in both words
and music. This is already made clear at the
work’s opening, taken from the Beatitudes
of the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
At the end of the fifth movement, the last
to be composed, the words of the Prophet
Isaiah give strength: As one whom his mother
comforts, so will I comfort you. Even one of
the first reviews praised the work’s warmth.
The Brahms Requiem captivates us because
it does not repeat the old familiar formulas
that, like all worn-out ideas, would simply
slide off the listener. Brahms reveals here his
own personal drama of faith, lending authenticity
to the Requiem. He stands by the
doubts, the difficulty to blindly believe the
promises of the church, of his denomination,
and he stands by his fear of death. This is why
the work still speaks to us so clearly today.
The will to have faith, the will to peacefully
let go of life ist essential; this ist what Brahms
teaches us. Assurance of salvation is not required;
what is required is to be searching for
salvation and learning to let go.
Lord, make me to know
mine End,
and the measure of my days, what it is:
that I may know how frail I am.
Whoever perceives this, for them the transience
of earthly life will lose all its terror.
For all flesh is as grass.
Grave solemnity combined with all the magic of
poetry, wrote Clara Schumann to Brahms in
1867 regarding his Requiem, has a completely
wonderful effect, upsetting and soothing.
Unlike Wagner, Brahms did not aim to
regenerate humanity from within. He did
not want to convince us of one solitary God
or the one true path. He only wanted to comfort
us with that which he himself believed:
the redeeming power of love.
Dr. Eva Gesine Baur
Translation: tolingo translations