Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf - Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem
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Artist: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth SchwarzkopfComposer: Brahms
Conductor: Otto Klemperer
Orchestra: Phiharmonia Orchestra and Chorus
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2010-03-30
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
- Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (1997 Digital Remaster) Ziemlich langsam - Selig sind, die da Leid tragen
- Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (1997 Digital Remaster) Langsam, marschmä�ig - Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras
- Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (1997 Digital Remaster) Andante moderato - Herr, lehre doch mich
- Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (1997 Digital Remaster) Mä�ig bewegt - Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen 5:48
- Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (1997 Digital Remaster) Langsam - Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit
- Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (1997 Digital Remaster) Andante - Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt
- Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (1997 Digital Remaster) Feierlich - Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herren sterben
Music reviews of Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem
Music Review: Klemperer's German Requiem
Rating: 5 Stars
This CD is a recent reissue on EMI of Klemper's German Requiem conducting the Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra with Elizabeth Schwartzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the soloists. The release is part of EMI's "Great Recordings of the Century" and it replaces an earlier CD in the series in a similar format with a slightly different cover which is now out of print. I am reprinting here, under the recent release, my 2005 review of the earlier EMI reissue of Klemperer's German Requiem. This is a classic recording which in one format or another will long be in the catalog and which will be important to any music lover.
I have been listening to Brahms's German Requiem to commemorate the death of a parent of a dear friend. This beloved work received its first performances in 1868 and 1869. Its immediate inspiration was the death of Brahms's mother and, probably, the death of Robert Schumann as well. Although many view Brahms as a conservative composer, the spiritual message of this work is distinctly modern. In writing his Requiem, Brahms eschewed traditional religous doctrines, creeds, and texts. Instead, he chose passages from the Bible (Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha) that emphasized a sense of the mystery of life, the fragility of life and inevitability of death, the hope for the future, and the value of patience and endurance. The German Requiem gives a sense of spirituality in a secular age. Brahms himself saw his work as a "human" rather than as merely a German requiem. Malcolm Macdonald, in his 1990 book, "Brahms", has aptly captured much of the spirit of this music when he describes it as showing "human love as the equivalent of God's love of the cosmos" (p. 22). Human love encompasses the love of a parent, friend, child, sweetheart, and much else.
I can't think of a more fitting interpreter of the German Requiem than Otto Klemperer or of a better recording to bring this music to life than this historic, 1961 recording with the Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra, with soloists Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Elisabeth Schwartzkopf. The recording is available at modest price on the EMI Classics series of "Great Recordings of the Century." It is that, indeed.
Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) was himself a religious seeker passing through at various times of his life periods of skepticism, Judaism, Christianity, and then near the end of his life a return to Judaism. He was at his best in the performance of serious, monumental music and in the works of Beethoven and Brahms. (His performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is also masaterful and available on this series.) This recording captures the solemnity and gravity of Brahms's great Requiem and also its lyricism -- its ultimate message of comfort and hope. The sound is outstanding. The chorus can be heard clearly and understood, and the instrumentation of the work comes through. The soloists, Fisher-Dieskau and Schwartzkopf perform their important parts in the third, sixth, and fifth sections beautifully. Klemperer's tempos are slow and magesterial.
The Requiem combines Brahms's study of the music of the past, primarily Bach and Mozart, with his need to compose in his own voice. Put otherwise, Brahms tried to reformulate the religious sensibilities of the past for the modern temper. Large massive fugual sections conclude the second, third and sixth sections of the requiem and counterpoint looms large in much of the rest of the work. But the prevailing tone is one of peace and comfort.
The first movement of the work is a consolation to mourners set in the lower registers of chorus and orchestra. The second movement is a lengthy and solemn sarabande which celebrates the transience of human life and the hope of an enduring life hereafter. This movement includes grand music for brass and tympani as well as for the chorus and the monumental fugue. Fischer-Dieskau delivers an eloquent prayer for wisdom and understanding in the third movement which, again, is capped by a great fugue. The fouth movement, the climax of the work, is short and songlike and captures the etherial spirit of heaven. The fifth movement belongs to Ms Schwartzkopf as she delivers Brahms's message of hope and consolation to mourners. The sixth movement is an impassioned dialogue on the mystery of life between the chorus and Fischer-Dieskau culminating in a grand fugue of glory to God. The finale returns to the movement of the opening, in a higher register, and closes the work on notes of hope and serenity.
The German Requiem is one of the treasures of music. Klemperer's version is an inspiration and will move both new listerners and those familiar with Brahms's great score.
Robin Friedman
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Description of Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem
'Where Fischer-Dieskau scores above everybody is in his singing of words. I do not mean merely singing them clearly but in their intensity of expression ... I have yet to meet a conductor who satisfies me as wholly as Klemperer does in the Requiem.' Gramophone MagazineOtto Klemperer is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century. Following the end of World War II, Klemperer returned to Continental Europe to work at the Budapest Opera (1947-1950). There he became an itinerant conductor, guest conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, WDR Orchestra Köln, Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Philharmonia of London. His career was turned around in 1954 by the London-based producer Walter Legge, who recorded Klemperer in Beethoven, Brahms and much else with his hand-picked orchestra, the Philharmonia, for the EMI label. He became the first principal conductor of the Philharmonia in 1959. He settled in Switzerland. Klemperer also worked at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, sometimes stage-directing as well as conducting, as in a 1963 production of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin.
With one of the towering conductors of his or any day in control, this is truly one of the great recordings of the 20th century. In today's search for authenticity of performance, smaller forces, lighter timbres and faster speeds are brought into play, but these seem to ignore a performing tradition passed down from the composer's time and made manifest here in Klemperer's grand overview of this work.
EMI MASTERS celebrates the full glory of the greatest performances from the world's greatest catalogue of recorded music. Digitally remastered at Abbey Road Studios direct from the original master tapes, these classic recordings emerge with unparalleled immediacy. You will be left in no doubt that you are in the presence of legendary musicians and ageless interpretations.
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