Kenneth Herman

San Diego Arts

"A German Requiem" at the San Diego Symphony

By Kenneth Herman
Posted on Sat, Mar 14th, 2009
Last updated Sun, Mar 15th, 2009

Shortly after the 1868 Bremen premiere of Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem,” the composer had second thoughts about the title of his grand opus for choir and orchestra. Naming it a “German” Requiem set it apart from all the other masses for the dead, which are based on the traditional Latin text from the Roman Catholic liturgy. But the adjective spoke only to the language of the text and not to the composer’s intent in writing the work.

Raised as a Protestant, Brahms had little use for Catholic liturgy, but, in truth, he was a free-thinker who was beholden to no theological system espoused by the various Christian traditions. He told his friends that his Requiem was really a “Requiem for Humanity,” a very personal selection of texts from Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible that spoke of comfort and consolation to the living, rather than prayers for the deceased and speculation on the afterlife. The dean of the Bremen Cathedral was so distressed that Brahms’ new Requiem contained not a single reference to Christian redemption, that on the Good Friday program that presented the new work, the dean made certain that the "Messiah" soprano aria “I Know that My Redeemer Liveth” was added to the concert to compensate for Brahms’ theological lacuna.

Brahms never got around to changing the title of “A German Requiem,” but its appeal to individuals of divergent creeds has made it a concert hall perennial. Friday (March 13) at Copley Hall, the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Master Chorale performed “A German Requiem” under the direction of Music Director Jahja Ling. I found some movements compelling: the hushed opening movement with its intense anticipation and the overflowing warmth and expansive emotional cast of the familiar fourth movement, know in English as “How Lovely Is Thy Dwellingplace, O Lord of Hosts.”

But overall, Ling's earth-bound interpretation lacked spiritual intensity and urgency. A work that should touch the heart and make the spirit soar merely unfolded dutifully, constrained by Ling's overly deliberate tempos. The end of the final movement, for example, should be an ethereal, reverent pianissimo, but Ling conducted with a matter-of-fact mezzo-piano.

The Master Chorale's best contribution came in the sixth movement, in which their cleanly phrased, balanced and well-supported counterpoint fleshed out the composer's tribute to the Baroque masters he so admired. In other sections, however, the women sounded forced, and there simply were not enough tenors and basses to provide the depth of sound Brahms demands. The orchestral playing, on the other hand, provided a bright, burnished sonority and rhythmically propelling drive. Adding the organ certainly reinforced the sustain of the bass line in a room that tends to soak up low frequencies.

Baritone Stephen Powell filled the room with a powerful sound, but he lacked stamina. In the sixth movement, where he should have been won us over with confident wonder, he resorted to stentorian declamation. In her sole movement of the Requiem, soprano Janice Chandler-Eteme soared over the strings with ease and gleaming confidence. Her lyric soprano gains strength and beauty as she ascends, and that is certainly what Brahms calls for.

Earlier in the program, Chandler-Eteme sang four Schubert lieder orchestrated by different composers. "Ihr Bild," orchestrated by Anton Webern provided an ideal, deftly-textured frame for her elegantly sustained vocal lines, as did Felix Mottl's arrangement of the more familiar "Staendchen." Franz Lizst's transformation of the bustling piano accompaniment to "Der Erlkoenig" proved distractingly dense and covered the soprano's lines in her lowest tessitura.

Ling opened the concert with a lively, detailed account of Schubert's Overture to "Rosamunde," an infrequently programed piece, but the ideal introduction to the Schubert song set.

CLICK PROGRAM HERE

About the author: Kenneth Herman began his writing career as a music critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune and covered classical music for the San Diego Edition of the Los Angeles Times (1982-1992). He wrote "A History of the Spreckels Organ." and is currently Music Director/Organist for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego and conducts the 60-voice San Diego Youth Choir.
More by this author.

Subscribe to Arts

 · 

Comments

Posted by KMW	Fri, Mar 20th, 2009
Poster of this message also appears(2) to post as: Karen WalterKMKW
IMO, the Brahms Requiem lost steam as it progressed (soprano "How lovely" definitely perked things up.) I wished German diction of the chorus was more audible. Or leave the lights high enough for listeners to read the German text alongside the English translation.

(1)sandiego.com, Inc. invites comments in which readers can respond freely and anonymously if they wish. Comments submitted by readers will be rejected that are deemed by the editors to be damaging to the future of this web site.
(2)Comparison is made from the IP Address identity of the computer placing the posts. Some networks share these addresses between users.