SCO Brahms Requiem Usher Hall Edinburgh 11th May 2023 Review
SCO Brahms Requiem aka Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) at the Usher Hall tonight featured Louise Alder, Soprano, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Bass Baritone, and the SCO chorus conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev.
Like it or not, there is no escaping the religious nature of most requiems, but whether you are religious or not, there is something special about them, and I have to admit to having a bit of a soft spot for requiems. Maybe it is something about the scale of them and the opportunity to experience an orchestra and a large chorus on one stage and be able to actually feel the power in the music of so many instruments and voices together.
Brahms Requiem is in many ways an bit of an odd requiem, and the first clue lies in its title “Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem). Here Brahms is selecting extracts from the Bible that are written and sung in his native German language. Also his selection is from the German Lutherian Bible, and that choice not to use the more traditional Christian dogma associated with a Latin text Bible caused more than a raised eyebrow or two when the work first premiered in 1868.
Oddly too, Brahms was not writing this work as a man in his later years looking back upon his life and contemplating his own eventual death and reckoning with his God. Instead this is the work of a younger man in his 30s, but one who had already felt the pain of the death of his close friend and musical mentor (almost father figure), fellow German composer Robert Schumann, and his own mother. You can feel throughout this work that this is by the hand of someone who has lost people very close to him, but it is not like many other requiems full of solemnity and a resignation to the eventual fate of us all.
Instead, this work is in many places full of light and joy; this is a celebration of life whilst accepting death as part of that life. Brahms himself referred to this work as “A Human Requiem”. This work is full of contrasts, and the first movement takes the form of a gentle lament for those mourning their loved one passing to the slow funeral march build-up of the opening of the second movement. In keeping with Brahms’ own personal beliefs, this work also avoids the often used traditional rebirth in some afterlife that many other requiems have by default almost, as their basis is the Latin Text Bible. Here instead, that eventual meeting with God is seen as a final calmness with its own unique beauty and this is reflected at so many different levels in the music itself.
Maybe part of my own fascination with requiems is that they are a reminder that so much of our musical history comes from the Church. Like it or not, religion and music have been interwoven with each other for a very long time.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Like it or not, there is no escaping the religious nature of most requiems, but whether you are religious or not, there is something special about them, and I have to admit to having a bit of a soft spot for requiems. Maybe it is something about the scale of them and the opportunity to experience an orchestra and a large chorus on one stage and be able to actually feel the power in the music of so many instruments and voices together.
Brahms Requiem is in many ways an bit of an odd requiem, and the first clue lies in its title “Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem). Here Brahms is selecting extracts from the Bible that are written and sung in his native German language. Also his selection is from the German Lutherian Bible, and that choice not to use the more traditional Christian dogma associated with a Latin text Bible caused more than a raised eyebrow or two when the work first premiered in 1868.
Oddly too, Brahms was not writing this work as a man in his later years looking back upon his life and contemplating his own eventual death and reckoning with his God. Instead this is the work of a younger man in his 30s, but one who had already felt the pain of the death of his close friend and musical mentor (almost father figure), fellow German composer Robert Schumann, and his own mother. You can feel throughout this work that this is by the hand of someone who has lost people very close to him, but it is not like many other requiems full of solemnity and a resignation to the eventual fate of us all.
Instead, this work is in many places full of light and joy; this is a celebration of life whilst accepting death as part of that life. Brahms himself referred to this work as “A Human Requiem”. This work is full of contrasts, and the first movement takes the form of a gentle lament for those mourning their loved one passing to the slow funeral march build-up of the opening of the second movement. In keeping with Brahms’ own personal beliefs, this work also avoids the often used traditional rebirth in some afterlife that many other requiems have by default almost, as their basis is the Latin Text Bible. Here instead, that eventual meeting with God is seen as a final calmness with its own unique beauty and this is reflected at so many different levels in the music itself.
Maybe part of my own fascination with requiems is that they are a reminder that so much of our musical history comes from the Church. Like it or not, religion and music have been interwoven with each other for a very long time.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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