Elblandia: A GERMAN REQUIEM – IN A NEW LIGHT

“If you still want to see our mother, come right away.” Johannes Brahms received this telegram from his brother Fritz in Vienna on February 2, 1865. By the time Johannes finally reached Hamburg, the city of his childhood and youth, his mother had already passed away. His remembrance of Christiane was repeatedly set to music, as in the fifth movement of the Requiem, “Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit” (“You Are Now in Sorrow”), composed later, with the chorus “Ich will euch trösten, wie einen seine Mutter tröstet” (“I will comfort you, as a mother comforts her child”). It is one of the most moving movements Brahms ever conceived. On this evening, it begins particularly delicately, with just a quartet of four strings, before the solo soprano and woodwinds, and finally the choir, gradually join in.

Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem,” Op. 45, ranks among the most moving works of memorial music. In this concert, his deeply personal work—based on texts he selected himself—will be performed in an arrangement for soloists, choir, and eight instruments by Iain Farrington. Brahms himself composed an excerpt for piano four-handed. Inspired by this—and equally dissatisfied with it—Farrington created two chamber music versions that retain the piano (two-handed) and seek a compromise with the orchestral texture. In the version presented here, the renowned British arranger added flute, oboe, clarinet, and a string quartet to the piano. The result is a classic presented in a new light—transparent, yet without sacrificing any of its essence.