Review: Captivating REQUIEM from Brahms, New York Philharmonic and New York Choral Artists

Brahms wasn't having a midlife crisis when he composed his masterwork, EIN DEUTSCHES REQUIEM (A GERMAN REQUIEM), his meditation on death. In fact, he was only 33 when he started writing it in 1866--and had written sections of the opening as early as 1861. His reasons for taking on the piece are unclear, though his mentor, Robert Schumann, had died in 1856 (and his mother would die before it was finished), deeply affecting him. Let's just call him "interested in death"--but that doesn't mean there was anything deathly about the performance of the hour-long work at the New York Philharmonic, heard last weekend. Conducted by the great Brahms specialist, Christoph von Dohnanyi, with the ample contributions of the New York Choral Artists, under Joseph Flummerfelt, and soloists Camilla Tilling and Matthias Goerne, the performance was transcendent.

The work--commonly called the Brahms Requiem--is unusual for several reasons. To start, it was written without a commission. (I wonder whether it would have ended up to be such a creative piece if someone had been second-guessing him.) The composer didn't use the typical, preordained Latin text of the Roman Mass for the Dead; as the program notes explained, "where a Latin requiem could be expected to follow the rules of its tradition, a German requiem involves personal choice." Brahms decidedly had something else up his sleeve, breaking it into seven sections. (Earlier, it had been only six parts, prompting a suggestion from the organist of the Bremen cathedral that it needed a section about redemption through Jesus Christ. Brahms made an addition--but in his own inimitable way.)

Written long before the composer's first symphony, the short-ish work (though it was Brahms' longest) has a youthful vigor and hardly needs a curtain-raiser to make it feel like an evening's worth of music. Under the great maestro, Christoph von Dohnanyi, the orchestra was at its fluid best, bringing out the serious but moving tone of the requiem while avoiding any glumness some might find inherent in the subject matter.

The stars of the program, really, were the members of the New York Choral Artists, under Flummerfelt, making the evening so special--not to minimize the contributions of the Philharmonic, which sounded wonderful, or soloists Tilling and Goerne, whose roles were short though critical to the proceedings. Yet, it was the chorus, at turns soft and mellow, mournful and declamatory, sad and defiant, that made this a mesmerizing tribute to the continued ability of Brahms' music to thrill the spirit.

The soloists were wonderful, each in their own way. Tilling, sitting very quietly and intensely until her solo part in the fifth section ("And ye now have sorrow"), rose and brought a crystalline brightness that was creamy when it needed to be. Goerne, in the fourth ("Lord, teach me there must be an end to me") and sixth ("Behold, I shew you a mystery") segments, was quite different in his approach. He was completely rapt with everything that came before him, singing along with the chorus until it was time for him to rise, then singing along again when his solos were finished. He had the work under his skin from the first notes of the orchestra, his body language passionate, his voice soaring, reminding me of his brilliant performance in WOZZECK with the Vienna State Opera at Carnegie Hall two years ago.

The REQUIEM will certainly never replace Brahms' symphonies or piano concerti in the hearts of concert-goers, but it was good to be reminded, once again, of the broad palate with which the composer was at ease--and how grateful we should be for it.

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