Johannes Brahms -
Ein Deutsches Requiem Op
. 45
for soprano and baritone solo, chorus and orchestra.
Baritone Vocals --
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Chorus --
Philharmonia Chorus London
Chorus Master [Chorleiter] -- R. Schmid
Composed By -- Johannes Brahms
Conductor --
Otto Klemperer
Orchestra --
Philharmonia Orchestra London
Organ --
Ralph Downes
Soprano Vocals --
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
I. "
Selig sind, die da Leid tragen"
II. "Denn alles
Fleisch, es ist wie
Gras"
III. "Herr, lehre doch mich"
IV. "Wie lieblich sind diene Wohnungen"
V. "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit"
VI. "Denn wir haben hier kleine bleibende Statt"
VII. "
Selig sind die Toten"
Composition Year 1865--68.
In addition to soprano and baritone soloists and mixed chorus,
A German Requiem is scored for:
woodwind: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon (contrabassoon ad libitum)
brass: 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba
percussion: timpani
strings and harp (one part, preferably doubled)
organ (ad libitum)
Brahms's mother died in February 1865, a loss that caused him much grief and may well have inspired
Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms's lingering feelings over
Robert Schumann's death in July 1856 may also have been a motivation, though his reticence about such matters makes this uncertain.
His original conception was for a work of six movements; according to their eventual places in the final version, these were movements 1--4 and 6--7. By the end of April 1865, Brahms had completed the first, second, and fourth movements. The second movement used some previously abandoned musical material written in 1854, the year of Schumann's mental collapse and attempted suicide, and of Brahms's move to
Düsseldorf to assist
Clara Schumann and her young children.
Brahms completed all but what is now the fifth movement by August 1866.
Johann Herbeck conducted the first three movements in
Vienna on
1 December 1867. This partial premiere went poorly due to a misunderstanding in the timpanist's score. Sections marked as pf were played as f or ff, essentially drowning out the rest of the ensemble in the fugal section of the third movement. The first performance of the six movements premiered in the
Bremen Cathedral six months later on
Good Friday, 10 April 1868, with Brahms conducting and
Julius Stockhausen as the baritone soloist. The performance was a great success and marked a turning
point in his career.
In May 1868 Brahms composed an additional movement, which became the fifth movement within the final work.
The new movement, which was scored for soprano soloist and choir, was first sung in
Zürich on
12 September 1868 by Ida Suter-Weber, with
Friedrich Hegar conducting the
Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. The final, seven-movement version of A German Requiem was premiered in
Leipzig on
18 February 1869 with
Carl Reinecke conducting the
Gewandhaus Orchestra and Chorus, and soloists Emilie Bellingrath-Wagner and
Franz Krükl.
Brahms assembled the libretto himself. In contrast to the traditional
Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, which employs a standardized text in
Latin, the text is derived from the
German Luther Bible.
Brahms's first known use of the title Ein deutsches Requiem was in an 1865 letter to Clara Schumann in which he wrote that he intended the piece to be "eine
Art deutsches
Requiem" (a sort of
German Requiem). Brahms was quite moved when he found out years later that Robert Schumann had planned a work of the same name. German refers primarily to the language rather than the intended audience. Brahms told
Carl Martin Reinthaler, director of music at the Bremen Cathedral, that he would have gladly called the work "Ein menschliches Requiem" (A human Requiem).
Although the Requiem Mass in the
Roman Catholic liturgy begins with prayers for the dead ("Grant them eternal rest, O
Lord"), A German Requiem focuses on the living, beginning with the text "
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." from the Beatitudes. This theme—transition from anxiety to comfort—recurs in all the following movements except movements 4 and 7, the central one and the final one. Although the idea of the Lord is the source of the comfort, the sympathetic humanism persists through the work.
Brahms purposely omitted
Christian dogma. In his correspondence with
Carl Reinthaler, when Reinthaler expressed concern over this, Brahms refused to add references to "the redeeming death of the Lord", as Reinthaler described it, such as
John 3:16
. In the Bremen performance of the piece, Reinthaler took the liberty of inserting the aria "I know that my
Redeemer liveth" from
Handel's Messiah to satisfy the clergy.
- published: 13 Jul 2012
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