Brahms’ ‘Ein deutsches Requiem’

St. Cuthbert’s Parish Church, Edinburgh - 12/11/22

Scottish Chamber Choir, Calton Consort, Meadows Chamber Orchestra, Peter Evans (conductor), Emma Morwood (soprano), Douglas Nairne (baritone).

St. Cuthbert’s Parish Church on the Lothian Road was the venue for a performance of Brahms’ German Requiem on the night of 12th November.  A collaboration of the Scottish Chamber Choir, the Calton Consort and the Meadows Chamber Orchestra, this has been three years in the planning, but delayed of course by the pandemic.  The performance was conducted by Peter Evans and the soprano and baritone solos were performed by Emma Morwood and Douglas Nairne, respectively. 

For a first-time visitor such as this reviewer, St Cuthbert’s is a breathtakingly beautiful venue. Though dating from the last decade of the 19th Century, its style blends older elements.  Shaped as a Byzantine basilica with an apse and a rounded vault, the interior is colourful with bands of green and flesh-toned marble, alabaster friezes and paintings imitative of late Italian Renaissance frescoes.  The seating comprises modern chairs but is comfortable.  The acoustic is warm without being excessively reverberant.  The lighting was bright enough to aid performers and audience alike and permit appreciation of the building; nothing was dimmed, so the text in the programme was legible, averting an all-too-common drawback of many an established traditional venue.  The performance was very well attended. 

The impetus to work in earnest on a Requiem was the death of Brahms’ mother in 1865, though the idea had begun to germinate almost a decade earlier following the death in a mental hospital of his friend and mentor, the composer, pianist and music journalist Robert Schumann.  Eschewing the text of the Latin mass, Brahms made his own selection of German quotations from the Luther Bible, emphasising words of comfort and a message of hope.  The final 7-movement version was first performed in 1869.  It has a symmetric structure, starting and ending with quotations from the Beatitudes, the first three movements dealing with comforting the bereaved; the last three with thoughts about life after death: the middle pivotal movement a description of Paradise. 

The violins are silent for the first movement ‘Selig sind’.  The music rises from the depths of the lower strings. The chorus entry was positive and well balanced.  Before long, their dynamic range became evident and it was impressively radiant with ‘werden mit Freuden’.  Some nicely phrased oboe and flute playing was also noted and the harp arpeggios at the end were elegantly pointed. 

The violins join the muted strings in the challenging key of B-flat minor in the opening section of ‘Denn alles Fleisch’ and they were really excellent in this world-weary march, as were the timpani and brass in the climax.  The sun burst through in the major key with ‘Aber des Herrn Wort’ and the chorus sang it like they meant it – excellent diction and dynamic control.  The coda with the soft timpani and trumpets and a final swell and diminuendo was magical. 

‘Herr, lehre doch mich’ is a pensive baritone solo leading to another choral march.  A weary baritone plaint ‘Ach wie gar nichts’ leads to soaring women’s voices which launch a dramatic fugato section with a sense of renewed hope.  This was marvellously well sung and played.  A pause for retuning … made the vagueness of the string intonation and the stridence of the piccolo in the relatively straightforward E-flat major of ‘Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen’ quite surprising.  It did settle down eventually, however, and the choral singing was very lovely. 

The soprano solo with chorus, ‘Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit’, was surpassingly lovely with limpidly clear German diction and expressive but unforced phrasing and accurate pitching of the melodic line, with just enough vibrato to sustain the expressive power.  It was quite superb and I almost didn’t want it to end … 

… but the sixth movement is my favourite.  The tempo choice was perfect for the initial march of ‘Denn wir haben’, solo baritone with chorus.  The dramatic tension mounts and a mood of defiance grows.  ‘Tod, wo ist dein Stachel?’  A magnificent climactic cadence spills over from an anxious C minor into a triumphant C major and my favourite Brahms fugue with full chorus and orchestra.  It was pretty magical. 

The finale ‘Selig sind die Toten’ is a kind of In Paradisum movement.  All tension is released and we have made our peace with death.  Beautifully sung and played. 

Bringing this major work to performance was a magnificent collaborative achievement of the three chamber ensembles and all plaudits to them, the conductor and soloists.