Customer Reviews

Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a remastered version of Levine's familiar and often recommended German Requiem from 1983. It is full of individual touches, some of which take a little getting used to. After a smoothly flowing first movement, taken rather fast, Levine suddenly slows down to give us one of the slowest second movements on record. In both he leads a restrained chorus, although technically the Chicago Sym. choral forces are among the best.

Kathleen Battle's Trauigkeit solo is ravishing, amazingly unforced and lyrical--surely one of the best ever recorded. Hakan Hagegaard has Fischer-Dieskau to contend with on the famous Klemperer recording and Hans Hotter on Karajan's first version from 1947; he takes a much less histrionic tack but sings with incisiveness--too bad the sonics are so thin, even in this remastering, that his voice completely lacks body and has a metallic edge.

Whether one likes this performance depends a great deal on liking Levine's leaner, less weighty approach to Brahms; his reading is almost entirely stripped of Protestant fervor and angst. This makes the Biblial texts seem to go by rather glibly, but as "pure" music no one could fault this performance. I would be tempted to give it five stars if the sound had been better.

I will make a rather short review since I have written about other performances. I will make it direct and simple.

This may be the finest performance I have ever heard of this music I truly cherish. If this is an indication of Levine's Brahms and Hillis' choral direction, then I want to hear more. I own a lot of Deutches Requiems, and I own some very good ones. Some truly excellent ones. I have loved every one I have heard and evaluated.

I threw away a number of Requiems in the past, ones that failed to reckon seriously with the religious and devotional content. To me one just cannot conduct a Deutsches Requiem without understanding and communicating the devotional that permeates the whole thing -- that is, the text and the music adapted to the text. This is the historic Martin Luther Bible with theological references to the resurrection, the return of the Lord (2 guesses who that is in Brahms' mind), the joy of the faithful in the Lord, etc. Without reflection of that, one misses the whole point of this music. It's a joke that it's for humanists and atheists, although personally I hope non-believers love it too. This is not a joystick for non-believers. But this is a music of faith for faith in others, otherwise Brahms might have quoted some Chinese poem, as did Mahler (and I love that too). If not religious in purpose, then it is mouthing and musings about little of nothing.

I say all that to bring a little reality to some of the dialogue I hear and see about the purpose of Brahm's Deutsches Requiem. I think Levine and Hillis together have captured the essence of what Brahms wanted the audience to get. And they do it with aplomb and skill and love. What power they pack into their pacing of this work. I was also impressed with the soloists. Nobody in this recording failed to earn glowing comment from me. This is to me the greatest single performance of Johannes Brahms' Deutsches Requiem I have heard to date. Get it while it is available.

Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) by Johannes Brahms is my second favorite classical piece of all time, right behind Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring). I love it for its lyrical beauty and its well-handled liveliness. Other requiems focus on mourning the dead, but the primary goal of Brahms's is to "comfort the living." Mozart and Verdi may have created the most popular and most well-known requiems, but I'll always stick with my personal favorite.

I have to say, however, that I'm not really impressed with this particular recording. Conducted by James Levine and performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, this one leaves a lot to be desired. First off, let's talk about the conducting. Now, I respect Levine for his passion and his intelligence, but I don't think he's had the right mind for this when it was made back in the early 80's. The music doesn't sound very meditative; there isn't enough beauty or spiritual comfort to create that divine spark that is required throughout this piece. The second movement is the worst example as it is horribly dull and slow. I believe that Levine was more concerned about musical detail rather than the emotion that it brings. The result is a bland, and sometimes ponderous, interpretation that's pretty much below other and far better recordings. The Chicago orchestra is decent at times, but overall I don't think the players were fully prepared during recording. There are several occasions in which the orchestra gives a sloppy performance. The chorus is a little better, but they still lack emotion as much as the orchestra. While the conducting and the orchestra/choir can be way off at times, the soloists are the highlight of this recording. Both Kathleen Battle and Hakan Hagegard do a wonderful job at singing the German text. Their vocal presence is fairly short, but they're worthwhile.

Overall, this recording is below average. It isn't among the worst, but it certainly isn't among the best, either. Battle and Hagegard are the upsides, while the orchestra/choir and the conducting make up the downsides. I would recommend it for just the soloists, but nothing else.

Grade: 4.1/10

You would hardly credit that this German Requiem merited the Grammy Award it won in 1985 if you believed some of the complaints about this recording, It is supposedly flawed by "tired, screaming sopranos", "sloppy" orchestral ensemble, a "small-scaled...insensitive" approach and a lack of spirituality. Whew.

Fortunately, that is not what I hear here. There are undoubtedly some idiosyncratic touches (or what some of us like to call "interpretation") from Levine, such as a pacy, propulsive opening movement followed by a very grand, very slow "Denn alles Fleisch" which builds to a superb outburst at "Aber des Herrn Wort" and then storms satisfyingly to the finishing line. The Chicago forces are superb, not at all underpowered, and the soloists superb. Haken Hagegard's light, lean, incisive, expressive baritone may not have quite the heft and gravitas of José van Dam for Karajan but he sings with real conviction and Kathleen Battle's silvery, soaring solo rivals the performances of Janowitz and Hendricks for ethereal poise. The sound is 24 bit remastered; clean and full.

As with all Levine's Brahms, his empathy with the stern beauty of the composer's idiom carries the day. This does not replace my favourite recording, Karajan's last, but it stands alongside it.

I became very interested in this work about 4 years ago, and the first recording I bought was the Shaw/ASO version. WHOA! But, being a good musician, I figured I better give some other recordings a listen. This was on the list, and I'm sad to say it was. From the opening movement which is supposed to bring comfort to the grieving, one can tell that the orchestra sounds very clumsy and not together at all. The sopranos sound as if they are screaming in a very non musical way to reach all of the high notes. It gets worse as the second movement approaches ("Behold all flesh is grass"). This is one of the slower approaches to the movement, and it just dosen't work, as the choir sounds very tired and sloppy. Throughout the rest of the work, one wishes that the conductor would just stop and put some emotion, some spirituality into the work, and not worry so much about technical aspects. Overall, as another review stated "a suprising dissapointment." The only redeeming factor is Kathleen Battle, who sounds AMAZING!!!