Brahms's German Requiem

"You could appreciate a German text just as much as the traditional Latin one, couldn't you?", Brahms asked Clara Schumann as he considered writing a Requiem in the months after his mother's death. Even so, Brahms later said that he could have called the piece a "Human" Requiem rather than a "German" Requiem; the emphasis throughout the piece on comforting the living and not, as the traditional Latin Requiem Mass would intend, aiding the passage of the dead. The Requiem is his longest piece, and Brahms invests his carefully chosen texts, which include "Blessed are they that mourn", "For all flesh is as grass" and "How lovely are thy dwelling places", with music of warmth and compassion, leaving space for mourning. The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra is joined by the Audi Young Persons' Choral Academy, singers in their early 20s who come from all parts of Germany and Austria. Soprano Julia Grüter and baritone Joshua Hopkins join the orchestra.

The programme opens with Lili Boulanger's 'Psalm 24', written during the First World War while she was living in Rome. It is music full of drama in which the brass and organ shine.

Recorded at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall on 25 September
Presented by Mark Forrest

Lili Boulanger: Psalm 24
Brahms: A German Requiem

Julia Grüter (soprano)
Joshua Hopkins (baritone)
Audi Young Persons' Choral Academy
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Anja Bihlmaier

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