Johannes Brahms, Requiem

Listen to Johannes Brahms' famous German Requiem in St. Stephen's Cathedral, an impressive work that is not intended as funeral music, but rather to comfort those “who bear sorrow.”

Although the title of the work suggests otherwise, the German Requiem is not, in the true sense, funeral music. The central idea of the work is not the eternal rest of the dead, but rather the consolation of the bereaved. It is music primarily for the living, reflecting the intentions and personal feelings of the composer, who had recently lost his mother, through his choice of texts.

“Since Bach's Mass in B minor and Beethoven's Missa solemnis, nothing has been written in this genre that can stand alongside Brahms' German Requiem,” was the glowing assessment of the hard-to-impress music critic Eduard Hanslick of this work, which helped Brahms achieve his breakthrough and, moreover, was to become his most popular composition.

Alois Glaßner skillfully conducts the mdw Sinfonietta and Chamber Choir together with the Chamber Choir of the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar to great musical achievements. The repertoire is wide-ranging and usually includes at least one a cappella program and one choral-orchestral work, such as Handel's Messiah, during the academic year.

Program and cast

J. Brahms: A German Requiem based on words from the Holy Scriptures, Op. 45

Duration: 90 Minutes, no intermission