Herbert Blomstedt, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra & Chorus - Johannes Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem (1995)

Posted By: ArlegZ

Date: Aug. 25, 2024

There are so many variables affecting a recording of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem that the chances are almost zero that any one conductor, orchestra, couple of soloists, and chorus (not to mention the sound crew) will get everything, or even most everything, “right” at a given outing. And of course, “right” is a matter of personal taste: after all, this is a major work that most choral music fans and practitioners, both amateur and professional, know, have heard on recordings, and likely have sung—at the very least the fourth-movement chorus “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen”. They have an idea of how the piece is supposed to go, from the particular sound and interpretive style of the soloists to the size of the chorus and character of the singing and orchestral playing.
Pacing, control of balances between orchestra and chorus, and a conceptual understanding of the work as a whole and how to elicit the character of each movement within that context, ensuring that the final proclamation “Selig sind die toten…” (among the most glorious, triumphant lines in all choral music) truly brings together, musically and textually, both the blessed of the first movement (mourners) and of the last (“the dead that die in the Lord”)—these aspects of a performance, of course, are totally in the mind and hands of the conductor; the extent of his or her mastery of and care for them determines at the very least how we feel at the end.
All of these things considered, among the dozens of attempts and reasonably successful recorded renditions of this masterpiece, Herbert Blomstedt and his San Francisco forces manage to get about as much right as we can hope for, from that first, striking a cappella choral utterance, appropriately soothing and shimmering, to the profoundly moving funereal trod of “Denn alles Fleisch…”, to the commanding baritone of Wolfgang Holzmair’s “Herr, lehre doch mich…”, the well-paced “Wie lieblich sind…”, which comes close to properly recognizing this as a love-song, a Liebeslieder-Walzer (after all, Brahms did choose to set this in three-four for a reason), the buoyant, facile soprano solo by Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz, to the powerful fugues and ethereal conclusion. Blomstedt is blessed with a chorus that’s polished, articulate, dynamic, and vocally robust (this work requires a high level of vocal fitness and technique from every section), and presides over an orchestra that boasts vibrant strings and pellucid orchestral textures (not so easy in Brahms’ often overweight scoring).
– David Vernier

Performer:
Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz, soprano
Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

Tracklist:
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Ein deutsches Requiem, for soprano, baritone, chorus & orchestra, Op. 45
01. "Selig sind die da Lied tragen", Chorus
02. "Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras", Chorus
03. "Herr, lehre doch mich", Baritone & Chorus / "Der gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand", Fugue
04. "Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen", Chorus
05. "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit", Soprano & Chorus
06. "Denn wir haben hier keine bleibende statt", Chorus / "Herr, du bist wurdig", Fugue
07. "Selig sind die Toten", Concluding Chorus

EAC LOG

Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 4. February 2020, 19:37

Norberg-Schulz, Holzmair, San Francisco Symphony & Chorus, Blomstedt / Brahms - Ein deutsches Requiem

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Filename C:\Cunctator\Brahms - Ein deutsches Requiem - Blomstedt.wav

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Test CRC 83C25ED3
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Track | CTDB Status
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Thanks to the original releaser

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