Prom 33: Brahms's A German Requiem – 7.08.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30
ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Thea Musgrave: Phoenix Rising
Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem

Golda Schultz soprano
Johan Reuter baritone
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Richard Farnes conductor

Inspired by the death of his mother, Brahms's tender, consoling A German Requiem couldn't be further from Verdi's and Berlioz's settings of the standard Latin Mass text. It's the first of three Requiems this season marking 100 years since the end of the First World War.

Richard Farnes makes his Proms debut directing the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, along with soloists Golda Schultz and Johan Reuter.

Thea Musgrave's Phoenix Rising (marking the composer's 90th birthday this year) also traces a journey from darkness to light -enacting the conflict both spatially and musically- in some of the composer's most dramatic writing.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is interesting.

https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2018/05/25/581645237/thea-musgrave-the-90-year-old-composer-with-80-players-in-the-bullpen?t=1533049131909

[BBMmk2]

This should be interesting.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

This should be interesting.

I think it will be. RF's Brahms is not the traditional stodgy pudding.

[jayne lee wilson]

The German Requiem is a much adored musical icon for me, one I save up my vocally/chorally hypersensitive ears for (along with LvB 9 & Missa Solemnis).... and yes, I'm only too glad if Richard Farnes keeps it moving (favourites here are JEG 2 and the even swifter Hervé Niquet - pretty radical at 51'!).

Hope the balance is good, and kind to my little pink ears...

[BBMmk2]

The German Requiem is a much adored musical icon for me, one I save up my vocally/chorally hypersensitive ears for (along with LvB 9 & Missa Solemnis).... and yes, I'm only too glad if Richard Farnes keeps it moving (favourites here are JEG 2 and the even swifter Hervé Niquet - pretty radical at 51'!).

Hope the balance is good, and kind to my little pink ears...

This work, I quite agree JLW. JEGGERs 2nd recording is quite something, imo. Looking forward to this.

[Pianorak]

Also looking forward to it. Favourite recording: Klemperer/PO and Chorus, Schwarzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau.

[jayne lee wilson]

Programme note for the Phoenix Rising...

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/c...work/1098/8414

[kernelbogey]

On TV Friday 10 August, 1930 BBC 4

[edashtav]

For me, the stars of the German Requiem were the exceptional BBC Chorus which sang the piece with panache and scrupulous observation of dynamics. They were aided and abetted by Richard Farnes who kept the momentum going, even to the point where,I felt, the Choral sopranos were hurried off a top note before they had time and space to relish it. The BBC SO were, once again, in fine fettle with some lovely woodwind solos and warm, echt-Brahmsian tone from the string band. The soprano soloist made little impact on me but the baritone sang with confidence filling the RAH with his ringing tones. A most enjoyable and well executed performance.

By golly, was it good to hear Thea Musgrave’s Phoenix Rising again after what must be a twenty year gap. It is mature Musgrave, the full deal, and whilst it’s a tripartite single movement, it has a very clear structure and strong overall trajectory. Musgrave always tells a tale and she often uses soloists to carry her argument forward as if they were playing in a concerto. Light and shade, good and evil all play their parts, and the whole feels like an orchestral morality play or wordless opera. I’ve been thinking about Vaughan Williams a lot in the last week, so you can imagine my delight when one stretch featured a tuned percussion group that might have assembled to play RVW’s jolly 8th Symphony. Message to the BBC: please let’s hear more of Musgrave’s large corpus of works. ( I was disappointed by an apparently less than enthusiastic reception in the RAH.)

[Ein Heldenleben]

Completely agree . The Requiem was quite beautifully sung with some lovely choral soprano singing. The performance bought our household to a standstill....

[BBMmk2]

This just has to be one of the best Proms this season! Everything that Richard Farnes and his soloists and the BBC forces were asked to do, they just rose to the occasion with great aplomb! Could'nt have asked for more. Very moving as well!

[edashtav]

This just has to be one of the best Proms this season! [...] Very moving as well!

Yes, indeed BBM.

[jayne lee wilson]

Profoundly moving, very considered reading from Richard Farnes of the German Requiem tonight (impeccably balanced on HDs as ever - let us never take such consistent excellence for granted).

What stood out for me was the lucid equilibrium of its musical expression and dynamic gradations, the closely observed layering of detail, Farnes keeping the orchestra light and clear, the chorus often sweet and restrained, never allowing them to become acoustically overbearing of orchestra (or ears).
But Farnes found pure, devoted Christian Passion in the key moments - the three concluding fugues, the fleeing of sorrow and sighing of No.3, the flare-up from mystery into resurrection, a truly climactic sense of joy and release in No.6, in "death, swallowed up in victory", the "glory honour and power" due to the Lord, our pleasure in His creation. "Death, where is thy sting?"

What wonderfully delicate instrumental and vocal blending of soprano, chorus and orchestra at the close of No.5; the harp, strings and winds so softly voiced at the very end, the long silence Farnes held thereafter.

FOR THY PLEASURE
THEY WERE AND ARE CREATED....

And so it goes with Richard Farnes' performance of Brahms' German Requiem tonight.

[jonfan]

A very moving experience and everything progressed seamlessly forward. Lots of details in the orchestration I’d not heard before. Balance between chorus and orchestra just right with Farnes letting the big moments at the end of the fugues stand out. The final chorus had a feeling of an In Paradisum though I’m sure Brahms intended comfort for those on earth rather than the those in the after life.
Occasionally some flat singing from the sopranos on some high tessitora but nothing to spoil the over all excellence and execution of Farnes’ conception.