Brahms’ ‘Requiem’ @ Dallas Symphony Orchestra
—Wayne Lee Gay
From late Beethoven to Mahler, the romantic era produced a generous repertoire of thrill-packed choral/orchestral works, including several high-intensity (and sometimes loud) settings of the Latin text of the Roman Catholic mass for the dead, or requiem.
Within that era’s massive subset of works designated as "Requiems," one work stands above the rest. More than any of his contemporaries, Johannes Brahms produced in Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) a complex work of art in which text, structure, and music combine for an effect both immediate and thought-provoking.
Brahms borrowed only the title from the Roman liturgy, avoiding any other reference to the Catholic traditions. Instead, he collected a broad range of excerpts from Luther's German translation of the Bible. In so doing, he invoked the topic of death, but the same time saying, essentially, "This is a different sort of Requiem."
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which customarily programs the work every six or seven years, presents Brahms’ towering masterpiece this weekend, with music director Fabio Luisi conducting the orchestra along with the 160-voice Dallas Symphony Chorus. Though it's almost difficult to imagine a conductor finding new insights into this oft-performed work, conductor Luisi presents a performance that is very much his own.
Indeed, there is here a built-in tension of the sort from which great performances arise: Brahms never wrote an opera, and, for that matter, hardly ever stepped out of German-speaking central Europe. Luisi, who built his international reputation as a conductor of opera, brings a strikingly operatic—dare we say Italian?—approach to this monument of the central European repertoire. Every good conductor takes advantage of the harmonic buildups, the surprising moments of silence, and the inherent contrasts in A German Requiem; Luisi finds the heart-stopping drama in those points.
German-born baritone soloist Matthias Goerne, veteran of numerous Wagnerian roles, personifies this operatic approach, with a cavernous vibrato and intense emotional presence. Unlike most oratorio soloists, Goerne sings without the score. (He’s the only performer onstage working entirely from memory.) And though he never moves from his spot at the front of the stage, he presents an unfailing aura of motion and energy.
South-African soprano soloist Golda Schultz mars an otherwise strong impression by singing at a level best described as mezzo forte at a point marked piano and dolce in the score—rather spoiling the mood of gentle mournfulness required.
The chorus is, of course, the focus and centerpiece of any performance of A German Requiem; the Dallas Symphony Chorus, trained by Anthony Blake Clark, once again proves itself a major asset to the musical life of Dallas. The triumphant fugal marches are magnificently grand; even more astounding is the quiet entry at the beginning of the work, and the softly soaring sound the sopranos produce at the phrase describing the morning and evening rain, perfectly evoking a gentle mist.
The orchestra—in particular the strings—have moments requiring extreme delicacy and precision, which they achieve perfectly. As always, the concert room at the Meyerson Symphony Center provides a perfect performance space for this chorus in combination with this orchestra, performing one of the great masterpieces of music.
WHEN: April 4, repeated April 5 & 6, 2024
WHERE: Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas
WEB: dallassymphony.org
