A German Requiem, Brahms's largest work, originated with music he wrote following Robert Schumann's attempted suicide in 1854 and evidently was also connected with the death of Brahms's own mother. The result is an utterly personal, scarcely ceremonial Requiem for soprano and baritone soloists, chorus, and orchestra, episodically setting texts from the Bible. Christoph von Dohnányi and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus are joined in these concerts by English-Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska in her BSO debut and the young German bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann.Since it's Holy Week, I was in church Thursday evening and will be again this evening. But the Boston Globe reviewer was very favorable. There is also a bass in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus who provides interesting insights into the preparation and performance over a series of five posts (so far). Preparing was apparently quite a bit of work, with a demanding conductor, but he seemed quite pleased with the final result. The posts are well worth reading for insight into what you're hearing.
I'm invited to brunch after Mass on Sunday, so I may not even be able to catch the rebroadcast on Classical New England, but I definitely want to hear the "on demand" sometime in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy the full treatment on Saturday evening or the actual performance portions on Sunday. And, as usual, CNE also has their own background material on their website.
No comments:
Post a Comment