MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 
REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Not available in the USA.

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK
Download: Classicsonline


Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Ein Deutsches Requiem (1868) [76:53]
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone); Elisabeth Grümmer (soprano)
Choir of St Hedwig’s Cathedral Berlin
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Rudolf Kempe
rec. June 1955, Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin. ADD
NAXOS 8.111342 [76:53]

Experience Classicsonline


This famous recording wasn’t alone in impinging itself on the record-buying consciousness of the mid-1950s public. Karajan’s earlier 1947 recording in Vienna (Naxos 8.111038) with Hotter and Schwarzkopf offered, then as now, strong challenges. A year before Kempe’s recording with them, the Berlin Philharmonic was in action again, this time under the direction of Fritz Lehmann (DG 457-710-2). This is to say nothing of later recordings such as that by Klemperer or archival survivals, such as Furtwängler’s, or the recently-disinterred live 1954 Gunther Ramin performance (Archipel ARPCD0289), much less the wartime English-language version from Toscanini, all of which have subsequently emerged.

Karajan’s recording had a powerful intensity, whilst Lehmann’s and Kempe’s offered somewhat more conciliatory approaches. There are certainly consonances between these last two, and not just because the choral and orchestral forces are the same (Lehmann actually also used the Berliner Motettenchor), though Fischer-Dieskau and Elisabeth Grümmer are on balance a more formidable duo than Otto Wiener and Maria Stader.

The well-blended choral work of the experienced Choir of St Hedwig’s Cathedral Berlin is notable, as is the finely judged, flexible tempi taken by Kempe. The important harp contribution is audible, but over and above such individual voices lies the sense of spirituality - often invoked, difficult precisely to define, but unanswerable when one hears it - that Kempe generates. The contrastive elements in Denn alles Fleisch, ones that some conductors push almost floridly, are here built into the fabric of the writing and are never startlingly out of scale. Kempe builds the movement with sure architectural logic and strength, bringing out the youthful elements of the choral forces. Perhaps to some he may stint on the sheer weight of things - but it remains a conception both logical and profound.

Fischer-Dieskau is predictably fine in his contributions. His Denn wir haben for instance is sung with breadth of tone and an inner tension. Grümmer’s consoling Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit is equally affecting and lacks an imparted ‘edge’ to her tone. She is one of the most communicative singers on record in this role.

So this performance, fifty-five years on, offers the grandest and noblest of perspectives to those for whom the very occasional congestion of the sound proves immaterial. Transfer philosophies enhance the listening pleasure.

Jonathan Woolf

see also reviews by Göran Forsling and William Hedley

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.