Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem
Music by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Premiere : Gewandhaus, Leipzig, 18 february 1869
One of the first actions taken by the new management of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo was to introduce a series of concerts designed to enhance the repertoire of the Opera’s choir and reveal to the public the full scope of its abilities. Following Rossini’s Stabat Mater earlier this year and Verdi’s Requiem at the beginning of this season, it is the turn of Johannes Brahms’ German Requiem to be presented in this new series. Between 1856 and 1868 the composer had been deeply affected by the death of two loved ones: Robert Schumann, his mentor, and the death of his own mother. His grief inspired him to create what was to become his passport to glory. Premiered in 1869, this sacred but non-liturgical work opened to him the world of symphonic music, a universe that, until then, he had hesitated to approach. Although Brahms failed with his intention to write an ecumenical work, its humanist character tran-spires through its inspired writing, vibrating with inward rather than ostentatious feeling. A German Requiem, half Baroque funeral cantata in its form and half Romantic oratorio in its scale, is the perfect choice to allow the Musiciens du Prince – Monaco, directed by Gianluca Capuano, to fully restore the sound of that period through their sensitive approach to the music of the 19th century.
LES MUSICIENS DU PRINCE – MONACO
Conductor
Gianluca capuano
Choirmaster
stefano visconti
solOists
Soprano
REGULA MÜHLEMANN
Baritone
FLORIAN BOESCH
Chorus of the OPÉRA DE MONTE-CARLO
Choirmaster
Stefano Visconti
Pianist assistant to the choirmaster & consultant for the musical organisation
Aurelio Scotto
Chorus manager & librarian
Colette Audat
Sopranos I
Damiana Avogadro*
Galia BAKALOV
Antonella CESARIO
Chiara IAIA
Mariko Izuka*
Giovanna MINNITI
Felicity MURPHY
Biagia Puccio*
Ilenia Tosatto*
Vittoria Vitali*
Ronja Weyhenmeyer
Sopranos II
Ingrida Gapova
Vittoria Giacobazzi
Valérie Marret
Letizia Pianigiani
Laura Maria Romo Contreras
Mezzosopranos
Teresa BRAMWELL-DAVIES
Géraldine MELAC
Suma MELLANO
Federica SPATOLA
Altos
Ornella Corvi
Francesca Copertino*
Maria-Elisabetta De Giorgi
Chiara La Porta*
Matilde Lazzaroni*
Catia Pizzi
Paola Scaltriti
Leonora Sofia*
Rosa Tortora
Viktoria Tkachuk*
Tenors I
Walter Barbaria
Lorenzo Caltagirone
Domenico Cappuccio
Thierry Di Meo
Vincenzo Di Nocera
Benoît Gunalons*
Nicolo La Farciola
Sergio Martella*
Manfredo Meneghetti*
Davide Urbani*
Halil Ufuk Aslan*
Tenors II
Gianni COSSU
Pasquale FERRARO
Fabio MARZI
Adolfo SCOTTO DI LUZIO
Salvatore TAIELLO
Baritones
Fabio BONAVITA
Vincenzo CRISTOFOLI
Daniele DEL BUE
Luca VIANELLO
Basses
Andrea Albertolli
Stefano Arnaudo*
Przemyslaw Baranek
Paolo Marchini
Max Medero*
Armando Napoletano*
Edgardo Rinaldi
Kyle Patrick Sullivan*
Matthew Thistleton
Giuseppe Zema*
*additional chorus members for this concert
LES MUSICIENS DU PRINCE-MONACO
Violins I
Plamena Nikitassova
Julia Rubanova
Fabrizio Cipriani
Muriel Quistad
Roberto Rutkauskas
Anaïs Soucaille
Agnes Stradner
Elena Telo
Anna Urpina Rius
Andrea Vassalle
Violins II
Nicolas Mazzoleni
Nikita Budnetskiy
Laura Cavazzuti
Francesco Colletti
Svetlana Fomina
Reyes Gallardo
Gian Andrea Guerra
Diego Moreno Castelli
Matilde Tosetti
Altos
Diego Mecca
Patricia Gagnon
Elisa Imbalzano
Emanuele Marcante
Massimo Percivaldi
Bernadette Verhagen
Cellos
Robin Geoffrey Michael
Nicola Brovelli
Anna Camporini
Guillaume François
Antonio Carlo Papetti
Emilie Wallyn
Doubles basses
Roberto Fernández de Larrinoa
Clotilde Guyon
Maria Vahervuo
Flutes
Jean-Marc Goujon
Rebekka Brunner
Piccolo
Rebekka Brunner
Oboe
Pier Luigi Fabretti
Guido Campana
Clarinets
Bernhard Roethlisberger
Roberta Cristini
Horns
Ulrich Hübner
Dileno Baldin
Gilbert Camí Farràs
Claude Padoan
Bassoons
Benny Aghassi
Ivan Calestani
Trumpets
Gabriele Cassone
Antonio Faillaci
Trombone
Seth Quistad
Marco Rodrigues
Billie Thomas
Tuba
Daniel Ridder
Timpani
Paolo Nocentini
Harp
Marta Graziolino
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Ein deutsches Requiem nach Worten der Heiligen Schrift, op. 45 (A German Requiem, to Words of the Holy Scriptures), for soprano and baritone soloists, mixed choir and symphony orchestra.
I. Choir: “Selig sind, die da Leid tragen” - Ziemlich langsam und mit Ausdruck [Rather slow and with expression]
II. Choir “Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras” Langsam, marschmäßig [Slow, like a march]
III. Baritone and choir: “Herr, lehre doch mich” – Andante moderato
IV. Choir: “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen” – Mäßig bewegt [Moderately lively]
V. Soprano and choir: “Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit” – Langsam [Slow]
VI. Baritone and choir: “Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt” – Andante
VII. Choir: “Selig sind die Toten” – Feierlich [Solemn]
On the Good Friday of 10 April 1868 a throng of two thousand people had crowded into Bremen Cathedral to attend the premiere of A German Requiem, a concert that was to mark the turning point of the 36 year old composer’s career. He was already at the peak of his profession, but not yet well-known outside a small circle of admirers, among whom was Clara Schumann. Fifteen years earlier her husband Robert had already detected the genius of the young pianist who had introduced himself to him. But Schumann then suffered a mental collapse and died in 1856. The shock of Schumann’s death inspired Brahms to compose A German Requiem, and he soon began to select texts. In 1861 he composed the music for the first two movements. The remaining movements were a much longer process, until the sudden death of his mother in 1865 gave him the decisive motivation (“We all think that he wrote it in memory of her, although he never explicitly said so”, stated Clara Schumann to Brahms’s biographer Florence May).
As a Lutheran, Brahms could not use the Latin version of the Requiem Mass used by Catholics since the Council of Trent (1545-1563), and which had been more or less faithfully set to music by Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, Fauré and Duruflé. As an avid reader of the Bible, Brahms therefore compiled his own choice of texts from Martin Luther’s translation of the Old and New Testaments. This no doubt explains why, a few months previously, the devoutly Catholic city of Vienna had been unmoved by the pre-premiere performance of three movements of the work.
Brahms gave his requiem a profoundly reflective character, a far cry from the apocalyptic visions of the Catholic Mass and excluding any liturgical intent. The indefinite article highlights the subjective character of the score, and the complement “German” highlights the choice of the vernacular language, but without any nationalist ulterior motive. When Carl Martin Rheintaler, who conducted the premiere, asked the composer if the absence of any reference to Christ in the work should be compensated in some way or another, Brahms tersely replied: “As for the text, I confess that I would also willingly delete the word ‘German’ and simply replace it by ‘human’.”
The score
In the years 1857 to 1864 the young Brahms had conducted choirs in Detmold, Hamburg, and then Vienna. Johann Sebastian Bach, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Heinrich Isaac, Johannes Eccard and Heinrich Schütz all featured prominently in his music library, and the example of these old masters is reflected in the numerous choral works that he composed during those years. This experience came to fruition in A German Requiem.
And yet this score is profoundly personal and romantic. As in so many of Brahms’s works, from the first movement (without strings) to the final chord (illuminated by the harp and flutes) it journeys from darkness to light. The first and last words are the same: “selig” (blessed), that enfolds the score in its comforting arms (“Blessed are they who bear suffering, for they will be comforted!”). However, there are two dents in this beatitude: in the sinister funeral march of the second movement, pounded out by the timpani, a reminder of the transient nature of life (“All flesh, it is as grass, And the glory of man like flowers”); and in the penultimate movement, the most dramatic, where the prophetic baritone announces the Apocalypse. It was perhaps to attenuate this suffering that, after the premiere in Bremen, Brahms added the fifth movement with a soprano solo, where the choir quotes Isaiah: “I will give you comfort, as one whom his own mother comforts.” By illustrating this passage with such sublimely beautiful music, Brahms was undoubtedly remembering his own mother.
Claire Delamarche translated by Mary McCabe © Opéra de Monte-Carlo 2023
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Ein deutsches Requiem nach Worten der Heiligen Schrift, op. 45
(A German Requiem, to Words of the Holy Scriptures), for soprano and baritone soloists, mixed choir and symphony orchestra.
1. Selig sind, die da Leid Tragen,
denn sie sollen getröstet werden.
(Matthäus 5:4)
Die mit Tränen säen,
werden mit Freuden ernten. Sie gehen
hin und weinen und tragen edlen
Samen, und kommen mit Freuden und
bringen ihre Garben.
(Psalm 126:5-6)
2. Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras,
und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen
wie des Grases Blumen. Das Gras
ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen.
(1 Petrus 1:24)
So seid nun geduldig, lieben
Brüder, bis auf die Zukunft des
Herrn. Siehe, ein Ackermann wartet auf
die köstliche Frucht der Erde und ist
geduldig darüber, bis er empfahe den
Morgenregen und Abendregen.
(Jakobus 5:7)
Aber des Herrn Wort bleibet in
Ewigkeit.
(1 Petrus 1:25a)
Die Erlöseten des Herrn werden
wieder kommen, und gen Zion
kommen mit Jauchzen.
Ewige Freude wird über
ihrem Haupte sein : Freude und Wonne
werden sich ergreifen und Schmerz und
Seufzen wird weg müssen.
(Jesaja 35:10)
3. Herr, lehre doch mich, dass ein
Ende mit mir haben muss,
und mein Leben ein Ziel hat,
und ich davon muss.
Siehe, meine Tage sind einer Hand
breit vor Dir, und mein Leben ist
wie nichts vor Dir.
Ach, wie gar nichts sind alle
Menschen, die doch so sicher leben.
Sie gehen daher wie ein
Schemen, und machen ihnen viel
vergebliche Unruhe ; sie sammeln
und wissen nicht wer es kriegen wird.
Nun Herr, wes soll ich mich trösten ?
Ich hoffe auf Dich.
(Psalm 39:5-8)
Der Gerechten Seelen sind in
Gottes Hand und keine Qual
rühret sie an.
(Weisheit 3:1)
4. Wie lieblich sind deine
Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth !
Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet
sich nach den Vorhöfen des
Herrn ; mein Leib und Seele
freuen sich in dem lebendigen Gott.
Wohl denen, die in deinem Hause
wohnen, die loben dich immerdar.
(Psalm 84:1-2,4)
5. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit ;
aber ich will euch wieder sehen und
euer Herz soll sich freuen und
eure Freude soll niemand von euch nehmen.
(Johannes 16:22)
Sehet mich an : Ich habe eine
kleine Zeit Mühe und Arbeit gehabt
und habe großen Trost funden.
(Jesus Sirach 51:35)
Ich will euch trösten, wie einen
seine Mutter Tröstet.
(Jesaja 66 :13a)
6. Denn wir haben hie keine
bleibende Statt, sondern die
zukünftige suchen wir.
(Hebräer 13:14)
Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis :
Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen,
wir werden aber alle verwandelt werden.
Und dasselbige plötzlich
in einem Augenblick
zu der Zeit der letzten Posaune.
Denn es wird die Posaune schallen und
die Toten werden auferstehen unverweslich,
und wir werden verwandelf werden.
Dann wird erfüllet werden das Wort :
„ Der Tod ist verschlungen
in den Sieg. ”
Tod, wo ist dein Stachel !
Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg !
(1 Korinther 15:51-52, 54b-55)
Herr, du bist würdig zu nehmen
Preis und Ehre und Kraft, denn du
hast alle Dinge erschaffen, und durch
deinen Willen haben sie das Wesen und
sind geschaffen.
(Offenbarung 4:11)
7. Selig sind die Toten, die in dem
Herren sterben, von nun an !
Ja der Geist spricht, dass sie ruhen
von ihrer Arbeit ; denn ihre Werke
folgen ihnen nach.
(Offenbarung 14:13b)
I. Blessed are they that mourn;
for they shall be comforted.
(Matthew 5:4)
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.
(Psalm 126:5-6)
II. For all flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away.
(1 Peter 1:24)
Be patient therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandmen waiteh
for the precious fruit of the earth,
and hath long patience for it,
until he receive the early and latter rain.
(James 5:7)
But the word of the Lord
endureth for ever.
(1 Peter 1:25)
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with songs
and everlasting joy upon their heads:
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
(Isaiah 35:10)
III. Lord, make me to know mine end,
and the measure of my days,
what it is: that I may know
how frail I am.
Behold, thou hast made
my days as an handbreadth;
and mine age is as nothing before thee.
Surely every man
walketh in a vain shew:
surely they are disquieted in vain:
he heapeth up riches,
and knoweth not
who shall gather them.
And now, Lord, what wait I for?
my hope is in thee.
(Psalm 39:4,7)
But the souls of the righteous
are in the hand of God,
and there shall no torment touch them.
(Wisdom of Solomon 3:1)
IV. How amiable are they tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
for the courts of the Lord:
my heart and my flesh crieth out
for the living God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house:
they will be still praising thee.
(Psalm 84:1-2,4)
V. And ye now therefore have sorrow;
but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh from you.
(John 16:22)
Ye see how for a little
while I labor and toil,
yet have I found much rest.
(Ecclesiasticus 51:27)
As one whom his mother comforteth,
so will I comfort you.
(Isaiah 66:13)
VI. For here have
we no continuing city,
but we seek one to come.
(Hebrews 13:14)
Behold, I shew you a mystery;
We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trump:
for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. …
then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is they sting?
O grave, where is they victory?
(1 Corinthians 15:51-52,54-55)
Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and honour and power:
for thou hast created all things,
and for thy pleasure
they are and were created.
(Revelation 4:11)
VII. Blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth:
Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labours;
and their works do follow them.
(Revelation 14:13)