Organization

Singer

Soprano

Mari Eriksmoen

Baritone

Andrè Schuen

Conductor

Raphaël Pichon

Ensemble Pygmalion

Opéra Royal de Versailles

Others

Choeur Pygmalion

Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45 -  (A German Requiem)

Versailles

France

Chapelle Royale

Public

A German Requiem

Approved

Ein deutsches Requiem Brahms

The German Requiem (Deutsches Requiem ) was composed by Brahms for two decades, before its premiere at Bremen Cathedral in 1868. Thirty-five years old, in full creative force, Brahms gives a work that perfectly masters the large sound masses of orchestra and choir, for a masterpiece that surpasses all comparable productions, and dominates the Brahmsian work. The colossal Funeral March which is the heart of the work ( Denn alles Fleisch ) has the force of Wagnerian choral pieces, but imbued with an inner pain, resulting from the trials of the composer's life during the genesis of this Requiem. In truth, far from being a requiem mass, this is a Trauermusik, a vast funeral music with romantic ardor, which takes as its model the old works of Schütz and Bach, and their intense Lutheran faith, to finally arrive at an entirely new composition in German, which won immense success in Germanic countries. Created at the same time as Wagner's Meistersinger , it is undoubtedly also emblematic of the German soul: its immense central fugue forges a mad ascent to the heights, before an apocalyptic vision, and the final paradise. On this eve of November 11, which links us to the First World War and its Franco-German explosion, how can we not hear this music with a premonitory sense, a musical ocean with waves carrying away the men who sing them?
Raphael Pichon approaches this monument of sacred music with the strength of his Pygmalion ensemble, experienced in the immense perspectives of Bach's passions: a path towards eternity.

English

A German Requiem by Brahms, From (2021/2021), Conductor Raphaël Pichon, Chapelle Royale, Versailles, France

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