Brahms: Motets [Import]

Johannes Brahms (Composer), Matthew Best (Conductor), Corydon Singers (Performer), John Scott (Performer), Christine Barratt (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Corydon Singers, John Scott, Christine Barratt
• Conductor: Matthew Best
• Composer: Johannes Brahms
• Audio CD (March 23, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Hyperion UK
• ASIN: B000002ZMY
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,829 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Two Motets: Es ist das Heil uns kommen her

2. Two Motets: Schaffe in mir, Gott

3. Geistliches Lied

4. Three Sacred Choruses: O bone Jesu

5. Three Sacred Choruses: Adoramus te, Christe

6. Three Sacred Choruses: Regina coeli laetare

7. Psalm 13

8. Three Motets: Ich aber bin elend

9. Three Motets: Ach, arme Welt, du Trugest mich

10. Three Motets: Wenn wir in hochsten Noten sein

11. Two Motets: Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Muhseligen

12. Two Motets: O Heilan, reiss die Himmel auf

13. Ave Maria

14. Fest - Und Gendenkspruche: Unsere Vater hofften auf dich

15. Fest - Und Gendenkspruche: Wenn ein starker Gewappneter

16. Fest - Und Gendenkspruche: Wo ist ein so herrlich Volk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ESSENTIAL BRAHMS, January 11, 2005

By 

DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brahms: Motets (Audio CD)

There are various ways of anthologising Brahms's less-known choral pieces. The Kansas City Chorale focus on the works that are easier for a listener new to this kind of music, but include the two severe motets op 29: Herreweghe goes in at the severe end, giving us all three sets of motets though starting with the Festival and Commemoration Pieces op 109 which are unaccompanied but a little less forbidding than the motets may at first sound: this disc gives us everything that Herreweghe gives, and also includes the 3 unaccompanied Sacred Choruses op 37 plus three settings with organ accompaniment - the Hymn op 30, Psalm 13 op 27 and the Ave Maria op 12.

We will never really get to grips with Brahms or understand what he really amounts to, it seems to me, if we don't know the motets. These are no more compositions that can be written off as `academic' than Bach's motets are. They are abstruse music and they are abstract music, but they are also some of the loftiest and most serious music ever composed. The art of music itself was probably the nearest thing Brahms had to a religion, and he had been obsessed from childhood with the techniques and potential of the ancient schools, particularly the German tradition. The well-meaning liner-booklet with this disc does its best, but the signs of its author's bafflement are all too clear. He takes refuge in superficial descriptions of the academic devices used, and when it comes to Ach arme Welt he blurts out that `the human dimension seems strangely muted'. A human dimension in that sense is the wrong thing to be looking for, as it is the wrong thing to look for in Bach's Art of Fugue. Music can touch human emotions as powerfully as anything can, but there is more to it than just a human dimension.

I can recommend this disc thoroughly, even if I stop short of a fifth star. The warmer and more approachable works are very well and appealingly done, what is missing is something of the stern awe-inspiring quality that Herreweghe for one can invest the motets with, and the recording has a pretty formidable standard to measure up to these days. There is some relief from the austerity of the Herreweghe disc here, and for uncertain music-lovers this is probably a better place to make a start with such music. For those who are even more hesitant, the Kansas City disc is probably a better starting-off point still. In the last resort the motets are the key to my own belief that Brahms is far and away the greatest European composer born in the 19th century. By that I don't mean that it is impossible to understand him without knowing the motets, just that one hears the familiar masterpieces with different ears when one does.

There is no information regarding the performers in the liner-booklet, and although there is a fine picture of the roof of Milan cathedral I would have traded that for the identification of the organ used. Full texts are, however, supplied with translation.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic works by a choral master, May 23, 2003

By 

"kiwimuzo" (Auckland, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brahms: Motets (Audio CD)

Brahms sure knew how to write intricate and appealing choral music - his harmonies certainly set out to defy the idea that he was born into the wrong musical period and should have been a Classicist. If you've never experienced this sort of music before, do get hold of a score and sift through it while you listen - his genius will amaze you!

This recording is what I'd call "safe" - it covers all the bases, is correct in terms of dynamics and intonation, but lacks the darker, more intense Germanity we might expect to hear. Still, there a precious few versions of this music around, and we could do a lot worse than this.

3.0 out of 5 stars Great music, but the performances cannot entirely avoid making it sound dull, April 5, 2011

By 

G.D. (Norway) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brahms: Motets (Audio CD)

Brahms's a cappella choral works are not exactly overrepresented on disc but I am less than convinced that these performances by the Corydon Singers really place themselves near the top of the rather small pile. The music certainly places substantial demands on the technical proficiency of the singers, and also present several textural challenges that the Corydon singers navigate admirably. Perhaps even more importantly, they sing these works with character and poetic lyricism (the Geistliches Lied is probably a highlight in that respect) and receive thoughtful and committed support from John Scott on the organ. It should, however, be emphasized that these performances focus more on lyrical and beautiful rather than drama, and when listening to several numbers in a sequence one really starts to miss a more full-blooded, awe-inspiring approach. Surely the Fest- und Gedenksprüche shouldn't be as dull-edged as they are here - beautifully sung, to be sure, but seemingly without much spirit.

The program is more variegated than it may sound to those unfamiliar with Brahms's choral music, giving us a cappella works, works with organ and works for women's choir, but the performances are a little samey (though equally beautiful throuthout). Another caveat, however, which serves to exacerbate the toothlessness of the performance, is the fact that the chorus is somewhat distantly recorded and with somewhat more reverberance than ideal. This means that the sound also acquires a certain woolly quality in certain places. Overall, then, if you want a lyrical, poetic and truly beautifully sung version of this music, this disc is surely in the running; I would personally have wished for a little more than that.