Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem - Haggander, Lorenz, Kegel (2012)

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Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem - Haggander, Lorenz, Kegel (2012)

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For too long a gap in the Brilliant Classics catalogue,we are happy to present a superb recording of Brahms’ sacred masterwork, Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms’ Requiem, written in German and presenting bible texts selected by Brahms himself, was composed after the death of Brahms’ mother, a shattering experience for him. The dark aspects of Death are relieved by music of great tenderness and intimacy. Conducted by the great German conductor Herbert Kegel, and excellent soloists Mari-Anne Häggander and Siegfried Lorenz. Digital recording licensed from the Capriccio catalogue.

One of the great choral works of the Western tradition, Brahms probably conceived his Ein deutsches Requiem – completed in 1868 – as a response to the passing of his mother as well as the tragic death of his close friend and mentor, Robert Schumann.The composition is the German’s largest in any medium, and one that was quick to enter the classical canon: first performed in 1869 to rave reviews, it is a masterpiece of technique and affect that continues to thrill both audiences and singers around the world. What makes Ein deutsches Requiem unique is Brahms’ unusual decision to compile the text himself; based on various passages of the Lutheran Bible, it’s not so much a requiem for the dead as one for the living – with the composer commenting that he could have happily exchanged the word ‘deutsches’ for ‘human’.

The work is cast in seven movements and is arrestingly performed by the Rundfunkchor/Sinfonie-Orchester Leipzig.

Featuring a soprano and baritone soloist, it takes as its musical basis two principal ideas, which, after initial statements, are subject to repeated development throughout the piece. From the second movement’s heavy funeral march rhythms to the pivotal fourth’s serene pastorale and the dramatically imposing nature of the sixth, Brahms touches on an array of emotions that reflect the arch-like nature of the composition. Like all great music, Ein deutsches Requiem contains a universal message that goes beyond the circumstances of the work’s conception, and which is beautifully communicated in this recording. Full of symphonic breadth and effectively responsible for confirming Brahms’ status as a composer of international repute, it’s a piece that deserves to be an essential part of any serious listener’s library.

Composer: Johannes Brahms
Performer: Mari Anne Häggander, Siegfried Lorenz
Conductor: Herbert Kegel
Orchestra/Ensemble: Leipzig Radio Chorus, Leipzig Radio Orchestra

Reviews: t is odd that the three greatest large-scale Requiems of the nineteenth century - those by Berlioz, Verdi and Brahms - should all have been written by composers who were most decidedly in various ways at odds with established religion. This reflection is sparked by the fact that the booklet note by Klaus Blum with this release spends very little time discussing the music of the German Requiem itself, and instead spends four very interesting pages discussing the reasons why Brahms should have lost his faith in the immortality of the soul. Whatever the reasons, it is noteworthy that the name of Christ is never once cited in the texts that Brahms himself extracted from the Bible for his Deutsches Requiem; and it is also of significance to observe that Brahms actually rejected a recommendation from his friend Carl Reinthaler that such a reference should be inserted into the text.

Brahms’s agnosticism did not stop the work from being heavily condemned by George Bernard Shaw and others of his generation for its perceived pious religiosity, which was probably enhanced by the marmoreal speeds at which much of the music was performed. In more recent years the tendency has been towards more flowing speeds, enhancing the dramatic contrasts in the score. Some of the recordings which have adopted this approach have tended to throw the baby out with the bathwater, giving a misleading impression that the score is lighter in spirit than Brahms clearly intended in his heartfelt homage to the memory of Schumann. The greatest performances give due weight to the score without reducing it to ponderousness.

This is very nearly a great performance. In the first place, it has Mari-Ann Häggander, who gives quite simply one of the most beautiful renditions of the fifth movement that I have ever heard. She has the creamy purity of Gundula Janowitz (for Karajan on DG) with greater emotion and the poise of Schwarzkopf (for Klemperer) without any sense of archness. Her voice seems simply tailor-made for what is a deceptively difficult part. In the second place, Kegel’s speeds are close to ideal, neither too funereal nor in too much of a hurry, and the recorded balance between choir and orchestra is just about ideal. In the third place, Siegmund Nimsgern has just the right combination of implacability and humanity to make a phrase like “Und ich davon muss” strike directly to the heart. Finally, Kegel achieves precisely the right balance between horns and timpani in the opening section of “Dann alles Fleisch.”

This last point may need some explanation. Brahms has really set performers an almost insoluble dilemma here. The movement starts with a slow sarabande which leads into a unison chorale for the choir. The sarabande then returns but this time with two added elements for rising horns marked ben marcato and an insistent triplet rhythm in the timpani. This then goes on to underpin the restatement of the chorale. If the conductor, like Klemperer for EMI, brings out the horns, then the timpani are relegated to a rhythmic background. If, like Karajan in his first (DG) recording he emphasises the timpani, the horns are reduced to a mere background in their turn. Rattle in his much-praised and otherwise excellent live recording for EMI gets the worst of both worlds, neither counterpoint being ideally clear. Kegel brings out the horns to begin with, and only then brings the timpani forward to underlie the chorus, which reconciles both elements perfectly. The problem however comes with his treatment of the chorale itself. He has clearly thought deeply about the words, and gets his choir to enunciate the text with precision and point. In doing so he breaks up the implacable vocal line which here should surely be set in sturdy contrast to the accompaniment. Brahms himself gives no indications of any dynamic changes in the phrasing - but then he rarely does.

The same problem tends to arise elsewhere. There is a praiseworthy attempt to get the meaning of the words across, but this comes at the expense of a slight sense of ‘niggling’, of not being willing to leave Brahms to make his points in his own way. Better indeed that than a solemn religiosity. The pointing of the words is never unconsidered or inappropriate but sometimes the sense of the lyric line of the music is sacrificed. The recording itself is close to ideal in the balance between voices and orchestra, with plenty of instrumental detail coming through. The choir is not over-large, but the line is always clear. The depiction of the last trumpet in the sixth movement is dramatic and energetic.

This is not then an overwhelmingly great recording, but nevertheless it is a very good one - and well worth consideration at the budget price. Brilliant Classics are once again to be congratulated for their uncanny ability to spot a deserved reissue of a performance that at the time of its original release seems to have been comprehensively ignored.