BaL 22.09.12 - Brahms: A German Requiem

**teamsaint** · 14-09-12, 19:28

Promises to be great. luckily for me, JLW has already picked me a winner, so I can just be an interested bystander. !

What a work it is.

**Simon** · 14-09-12, 19:36

Good heavens!

I'd guess that the Celib at Munich gets a good mention. Herreweghe is also superb at this sort of choral repertoire, too.

And what about Schwarzkopf and DFD with Klemperer? Wow! And Rattle.

Wonder what the Windsbach boys made of it, too.

I have two versions, but the only one I can find now is the Koch with the Berlin radio lot.

Thank you for the listing, Alpen.

**ferneyhoughgeliebte** · 14-09-12, 19:53

Like teamsaint, JLW has whetted my appetite for Jegger's most recent recording.

Of "traditional" performances, I love all of Karajan's: the VPO from the late 40s is (in the best sense of the word) appalling (reputedly Toscanini's favourite recording) - a monument to the destruction of the Second World War. His middle two recordings are very good if more "comfortable" and it is only the last recording (put onto disc the day before he underwent surgery that he knew he might not survive) that recaptures the terror of the first.

**teamsaint** · 14-09-12, 19:59

Bought a copy of the Leisdorf/ New England Conservatory version on a whim years ago. It appears to be unavailable....unsurprisingly !!

**gurnemanz** · 14-09-12, 20:55

A long and intriguing list from which I have only the classic Klemperer/Philharmonia. It is a work in which, other things being more or less equal, I think I would tend to prefer native German speakers as soloists. Our choir was doing the work ten years ago just after my mother died. I remember being moved to tears listening to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit", having heard it many times before but coming to it with a deepened appreciation.
She's on YouTube:

- YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R42bD2X6n34

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

**BBMmk2** · 14-09-12, 21:00

I would love also to hear the Rattle(Berlin), and the two Abbado's recordings I have the Kurt Amsur recording at the moment.

**Barbirollians** · 14-09-12, 21:16

Klemperer still in a class of its own IMO . Though that late 40s Karajan has a special charge and the Gardiner is very fine for Hippites. Those three are more than enough for me in this work.

**Don Petter** · 14-09-12, 21:38

Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post

Klemperer still in a class of its own IMO.

Agreed! His opening of the second movement, Denn alles Fleisch , (with the Philharmonia) is one of the great passages in recorded music. Not to be sampled too often, in case it becomes diluted by over-familiarity.

**ferneyhoughgeliebte** · 14-09-12, 22:06

A word of appreciation, too, for Previn's two recordings - not repertoire for which he is most known, he nevertheless shows himself to be completely "in" the Music: two of his finest achievements, I think. (He was also the conductor of the only concert in which I've heard the work - c. 1984.)

**BBMmk2** · 15-09-12, 08:44

Barbirollians, any thoughts on Kurt Masur's?

**Barbirollians** · 15-09-12, 22:44

Don't know it I am afraid BBM.

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 15-09-12, 22:50

Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post

Don't know it I am afraid BBM.

I have Furtwangler and VPO/Giulini. I find the latter to be sincere, but rather ponderous, and not helped by the DG recording of that time.

**jayne lee wilson** · 17-09-12, 00:51

Klemperer's EMI stereo recording is a great one, but there are 2 live versions, with the Vienna Phil in 1958 (sadly locked away in the Testament VPO box) and Cologne radio forces in 1955 (ICA, current).

These both gain a lot from faster tempi (ca.65' in Vienna, 61"(!) in Cologne - EMI is 69') and the urgency of live performance. The Philharmonia legend shares their directness but I wonder if the slower tempi are a product of studio conditions... for me, the quicker performances give a truer representation of his view of the piece. (You can sample the ICA one at Classicalshop etc...)

Once I'd heard the later Gardiner or the earlier Klemperer I found it impossible to return to anything heavier or slower.

**verismissimo** · 19-09-12, 09:21

As a lover of ancient recordings, I always want to like Karajan's DR from 1947 more.

But the sound on my LP is far too congested. Is it better on CD? Or is this a work that really needs modern recording?

BaL 22.09.12 - Brahms: A German Requiem

BaL 22.09.12 - Brahms: A German Requiem

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