Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem

Ein deutsches Requiem, Brahms's longest choral work, was composed during three different periods of his life but completed between 1865 and 1868, perhaps as a result of the death of the composer's mother. It is a sacred work, but non-liturgical. It features text chosen by Brahms from the German Lutheran Bible, with passages from both the Old and New Testament. However, it does not include material about the Last Judgment, and was written primarily (according to Brahms), to comfort the living. On this recording, soloists Christiane Karg and Matthias Goerne are joined by the Swedish Radio Choir and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, all under the direction of maestro Daniel Harding.

Herbert von Karajan (5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years.

The chorus standing in (literally) serried ranks, singing from memory; rich, turbo-charged orchestral playing… it all seems more Cecil B de Mille than Brahms.

The longest work in Brahms’s entire oeuvre, A German Requiem was almost certainly triggered by the death of his mother, although it also seems likely that the tragic loss of his friend Robert Schumann, some years earlier, added to its depth and eloquence.

Johannes Brahms is an icon. Say Johannes, and you know you are talking about Brahms. The successor to Beethoven, the sober man who valued seriousness, the champion of classical traditions, a close friend of the Schumanns. But how well do we really know Brahms? How close does he let us get to him in his music? In his Requiem we go in search of the human Brahms and in the music of his mentor and good friend Robert Schumann.

Otto Klemperer's masterful direction of the Philharmonia Orchestra in Brahms' opus, "A German Requiem," resonates with a poignant depth, capturing the soul-stirring essence of this monumental work.

Johannes Brahms was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

Luminous Voices presents Brahms’ "Ein deutsches Requiem" alongside contemporary pieces by Zachary Wadsworth in the album 'Fire-Flowers.' Exploring themes of loss, grief, and hope, the album is led by Timothy Shantz. Laura Brandt (soprano), Jonathon Adams (baritone), Cheryl Emery-Karapita (piano), and Leanne Regehr (piano) collaborated to bring these pieces to life. Wadsworth's "Battle-Flags," is inspired by Walt Whitman’s Civil War experiences. Brahms’ iconic Requiem reflects personal tragedies and calls for empathy. The album concludes with "Fire-Flowers," where Wadsworth captures E. Pauline Johnson’s poem in a musical tale of optimism and renewal.

Klemperer and Brahms had much in common, which may go some way to explaining the empathy with which Klemperer conducts the works of the great composer. As Richard Osborne says in the accompanying liner notes: ‘no detail was insignificant, yet none was allowed to subvert the larger whole’. The recordings in this box have all been remastered in HD from original tapes for the Otto Klemperer Complete Edition in 2023.