Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem (Bach Collegium Japan; Masaaki Suzuki) (CD)

Before conquering concert halls with his symphonies, Johannes Brahms made a name for himself as a choral conductor. He led vocal ensembles in his hometown of Hamburg, in Detmold, and Vienna, enriching the repertoire with his own music. Composed between 1865 and 1868, Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) is his most extensive choral work and a milestone in his artistic development.

In this work, Brahms combined text passages from the Old and New Testaments in an unconventional way: the 'target' of the text and music is no longer the deceased, for whose salvation we pray, but the survivor, who is to be consoled. He thus turned away from ecclesiastical conventions and created a very atypical requiem, which has nothing to do with the Catholic Church’s often-set Latin requiem mass. Instead, it was conceived from the outset for the concert hall or church concerts. Musically, the Requiem draws from earlier traditions in a highly personal way while remaining firmly in a Romantic choral idiom, at times embedded in lush orchestral textures.

After countless acclaimed recordings devoted to the religious music of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan now present their unique vision of Brahms’s masterpiece.

Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45
I. Selig sind, die da Leid tragen
II. Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras
III. Herr, lehre doch mich
IV. Wie lieblich sind Deine Wohnungen
V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit
VI. Denn wir haben hie
VII. Selig sind die Toten