BaL 22.09.12 - Brahms: A German Requiem

[Barbirollians]

Returning to the 1947 Karajan I only have the Naxos remastering. It does sound pretty dim for 1947 rather more like a Pre war recording albeit that it is gripping . Is the EMI references pressing better?

After listening to it again tonight I feel fhgl's ironic remarks more well founded than ever. It really undermines BAL when classic recordings are ignored.

[Nick Armstrong]

... I enjoyed this BAL.

On the strength of it, I am ordering the Celibidache with Hotter; and the Klemperer (which I was surprised to find I didn't have). Curiously I was not much tempted by Sawallisch, his top recommendation.

I still enjoy the 1990 Gardiner, the Karajans of 1947 and and 1985, Previn 1987, Equilbey/Accentus, and Norrington.
I also very much enjoy Brahms's four hand piano version - Silke-Thora Matthies and Christian Köhn on naxos

I caught up with this whilst away I also enjoyed it (but then I enjoy everything Summerly does).

Like you vindepays, I didn't "get" the final recommendation at all - each extract from the Sawallisch was a demonstration of what I don't like - the quality of the recording, the balance, the shape of the reading.

I've lived with the Klemperer for longer than I care to think. (I remember having it on the walkman during an early business trip to Athens in 1986 as a stripling - couldn't believe my luck, and had an epiphanic moment on my hotel balcony watching the sun set over the Acropolis listening to "Here we have no enduring city"... aided by the fact that I was ¾ through a bottle of retsina... ). The whole reading has never lost its unique, epic magic for me.

I also love the Herreweghe/O des Champs Elysées performance.

Thank you vinrouge for telling me that Accentus have recorded it - I didn't know that, and having been bowled over by their Fauré Requiem, I'm very tempted

[Barbirollians]

The 1947 Karajan really impresses more each time I hear it - Hotter and Schwarzkopf are very moving and it is a great experience .

[LeMartinPecheur]

Following the broadcast and/or endorsements on this thread, some boarders were rushing off to buy the EMI Klemperer. Any reactions yet?

[gurnemanz]

The 1947 Karajan really impresses more each time I hear it - Hotter and Schwarzkopf are very moving and it is a great experience .

Thanks for making me aware of this. I've just looked up the Gramophone review by Richard Osborne who tells us: "The result is an articulation of the text so tender, so sad, so telling that one is no longer listening to a performance of a piece of music but, to a sublime meditation on sacred texts by men and women all too acutely aware in the aftermath of war of the truth of the words and the sublimity of Brahms's setting of them."
The context made me think of Peter Anders and Michael Raucheisen recording Winterreise in the ruins of Berlin in March 1945 with Russian tanks not far away.
I have duly ordered it. Sainsbury's are selling it for the price of a pint.

http://www.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk/en/Music/CD/Johannes-Brahms/Ein-Deutsches-Requiem-Von-Karajan-Vienna-PO-Schwarzkopf/product.html?product=E10123864

[Barbirollians]

I hope you enjoyed it gurnemsnz - I have come across another vintage recording from the BPO and Kempe in 1956 With DFD and Elisabeth Grummer - slow but ever so beautiful.

[BBMmk2]

Oh what a work this is. I have Harnoncourt, Masur and Klemperer.

[jayne lee wilson]

I hope you enjoyed it gurnemsnz - I have come across another vintage recording from the BPO and Kempe in 1956 With DFD and Elisabeth Grummer - slow but ever so beautiful.

D'you know the earlier live mono Klemperer performances I mentioned in #14?
Köln '56 and VPO '58? Marvellously urgent, fast and impassioned, for me far preferable to his Stereo EMI Philharmonia one..

[Lordgeous]

I hope you enjoyed it gurnemsnz - I have come across another vintage recording from the BPO and Kempe in 1956 With DFD and Elisabeth Grummer - slow but ever so beautiful.

This is the version I grew up with, and love, and still have on LP. I guess its time to investigate some others but not a work that I listen to very often, beautiful though it is. A personal memory: I once had to play piano in front of Krmpe at th RFH, accompanying a friend who was auditioning for the RPO/LPO (?). A scary experience!

[Barbirollians]

D'you know the earlier live mono Klemperer performances I mentioned in #14?
Köln '56 and VPO '58? Marvellously urgent, fast and impassioned, for me far preferable to his Stereo EMI Philharmonia one..

No not aware of them - I suspect the Cologne may be easier to get hold of - thanks

[jayne lee wilson]

No not aware of them - I suspect the Cologne may be easier to get hold of - thanks

Köln here.......

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brahms-Mozart-Klemperer-Deutsches-Serenata/dp/B004FFBM9E/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=brahms+requiem+klemperer&qid=1587558972&sr=8-4

The VPO one was in that extraordinary 8-disc Testament boxset (Wiener Phil Live Broadcast Performances, 2005) .... IIRC it was nas....

As said above, one of my musical icons, this work.... my latest flame is the Hervé Niquet on EPR 2015, but at 51'03 definitely not for everyone...!

[gurnemanz]

Köln here.......

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brahms-Mozart-Klemperer-Deutsches-Serenata/dp/B004FFBM9E/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=brahms+requiem+klemperer&qid=1587558972&sr=8-4

The VPO one was in that extraordinary 8-disc Testament boxset (Wiener Phil Live Broadcast Performances, 2005) .... IIRC it was nas....

As said above, one of my musical icons, this work.... my latest flame is the Hervé Niquet on EPR 2015, but at 51'03 definitely not for everyone...!

Was prompted to follow up Klemp/Köln via Spotify where they have this version of the same performance, published earlier this year (unlike ica no Mozart fill-up). I love Elisabeth Grümmer and a few years ago I got this excellent 10Cd collection (still around at a giveaway price), on which you get her "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit" on its own. Great to hear the rest of the performance.

Our choir were rehearsing the German Requiem (yes, in English, alas) at the time my mother died in 2001 and "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit" will always have a special poignancy for me, as it obviously did for the composer.