“Requiem” is the
name of the mass for the dead in the Roman liturgy. Brahms was
a protestant and the word ‘deutsches’ (German) indicates that
his composition is based on the Lutheran Bible, from which the
composer selected passages from both the
Old and New Testament as well as the Apocrypha. As opposed to
the Latin Requiem his work is more a meditation and in that
respect it has some similarities with Fauré’s Requiem.
Brahms’s mother
died in 1865 and this may have been the direct reason for him
to write a large-scale work in her memory. In December 1867
the first three movements were performed in Vienna
but the first official performance was in Bremen
in April 1868. This was still without the fifth movement, which
was composed during the summer that year. The first complete
performance was given in Leipzig
in February 1869, conducted by Carl Reinecke.
The first Vienna
production was given by The Choral Society of the Friends of
Music and this is the choir that Herbert von Karajan engaged
for this, the first commercial recording of the work. Vienna
by then, in 1947, was still severely affected by the war: the
political situation was unstable, the electricity could not
always be trusted and the city was divided into four zones by
the Allies. With Walter Legge as producer and Douglas Larter
as engineer they managed to record the work successfully and
considering that it was set down sixty years ago the quality
of the sound is indeed impressive. A work of these dimensions
ideally requires stereo recording to convey the full impact
but listening with headphones, as I regularly do when reviewing,
there is enough detail to be heard for full enjoyment of this
sombre but warm work. Just two years after the war was over
it is also remarkable that musical life had recovered to such
an extent. The Vienna Philharmonic play beautifully and though
there are occasionally individual voices that protrude from
the collective of the choir it is still a homogeneous sound-picture.
Most impressive is the singing in the fugal passages, notably
in movements three and six, with pinpoint precision and no lack
of power. But the beautifully serene fourth movement, Wie
lieblich sind deine Wohnungen,
is also as reverential as it should be. It is worth noting that
Karajan was associated with the choir from the year of this
recording, 1947, until his death in 1989, directing them in
over 250 performances.
This is primarily
a work for choir and orchestra but the two soloists are also
important and they lend a special individuality to the work
in contrast to the collective of the choir. Hans Hotter’s dramatic
declamation is almost on a Wagnerian scale and at this stage
of his career his dark baritone was a superb instrument, powerful
and beautiful. His timbre at the beginning of the third movement
made me reach for the cover to check if this wasn’t after all
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Of course it wasn’t but there is certainly
an uncanny likeness. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who six years later
was to marry producer Walter Legge, was at this stage still
a lyric soprano. She sings her solo, Ihr habt nur Traurigkeit,
simply and with vulnerable tone.
Listening to Ein
deutsches Requiem is always an act of contemplation and
reverence, from the sombre opening via the dramatic climax of
the double fugue of the sixth movement and back to the atmosphere
of the opening. In a collection of great choral music there
should be at least one recording in modern sound – and there
is a wide choice. Some listeners think Sinopoli’s DG recording
is erratic but I have always liked it, Solti on Decca with Kiri
Te Kanawa a wonderful soprano soloist may be a safer bet, and
Karajan recorded it on three further occasions, his 1964 version
with Gundula Janowitz and Eberhard Wächter as soloists possibly
the best. And then there is always Klemperer with Schwarzkopf
again – and Fischer-Dieskau. The present version belongs in
this select company and should be an attractive complement to
one of the others – not only for historical freaks.
There are no texts
but Malcolm Walker provides historical notes, from which I have
drawn some of the information above, a ‘synopsis’ and biographies.
At Naxos price this disc gives much music
for the money.
Göran Forsling
See also Review
by Colin Clarke September BARGAIN
OF THE MONTH
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
(soprano), Hans Hotter (baritone) 
