A Magnificent German Requiem

Saturdays are usually relaxing but not this Saturday. I had to rush off to the Cultural Centre almost immediately after a meal which I had following an earlier stunningly beautiful French film. But when the concert ended, I felt that all the double quick leg work was worth my while: what the earlier French film was visually, Brahm's German Requiem was sonically. They do have something in common though; both were hymns, but in vastly different ways: the first to Nature and the second to man's divine nature.

In many ways, the German Requiem was a landmark. It established Brahm as a composer not to be passed over lightly. Its second movement was Brahm's tribute to his mentor Schumann who tried to commit suicide by jumping into Rhine two years earlier in 1854. Schumann is not only Brahm's mentor, but also his beloved friend and he had a complicated relation with Clara Schumann, his wife. The piece was a completely new kind of Requieum. It did not have the usual theme of resurrection through Jesus Christ. It was sad in places but there is in that music a certain optimism, a spirit first of quiet, then tender and then of resplendent, almost exploding transcendence, which finally uplifts humanity from the Biblical destiny of a life of sorrow in a vale of tears. As Brahms said, it was written less in memory of the dead than in exhortation of the living. 

Throughout his life, Brahm never had much confidence in himself. For that reason, he was extremely critical of his own work and often had to write and then rewrite his pieces. The piece was written not just in one go and there were fits and starts spanning a number of years starting in 1865. By the time he wrote it, Brahms had already had some experience in choral writing because he was in charge of a woman's choir in his hometown Hamburg and he had already written motets in German, instead of in Latin, as he did in this masterpiece which he substantially completed in 1867. Some scholars suggest that the piece was inspired by the death of his mother, especially the 5th movement. The final piece was not presented to the German public in full in 1869!. It's a peculiar mix of the traditional Bach-style fugue counter-points and cantata form and his more romantic treatment.

Critics and scholars have noted certain symmetries in the 7 movement piece eg. the first and last movement in F major with parallel texts "blessed" and harmonic progression. . The 1st movement is "Blessed are they that have sorrow", the 2nd "For All Flesh is as Grass", the 3rd "Lord, make me know that I must have an end", the 4th "How lovely are your dwellings, Lord of Sabbath, 5th "You now have sorrow, Thee will I comfort", the 6th "For we have no abiding city, Behold I show you a mystery" and the last "Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord." , To me, the first movement is slow and sad becoming less so as the movement progresses. The second has a very insistent and heavy rhythm which is not dispelled till the very end. The third is bit sombre but wavering and undecided. The fourth is more tender, relaxed and soothing. The fifth also shifts between sadness and consolation. The sixth is where the music finally burst forth in magnificence following its contemplative start whilst the final movement successfully resolves the tension of sadness and sorrow built up by the previous movements by an explosion of joy and optimism which nostalgically recalls certain themes of the first movement but now repeats it in a mood of quiet repose,contentment and acceptance. Far from being a depressing piece, the German Requiem is in the end full of hope.

Except for the much too loud and domineering sound of the low organ notes in the first movement, the HKPO and the combined Tasmanian and West Australia Symphony Orchestras' Choruses under Jaap van Zweden gave a truly unforgettable music performance. Though I have heard the German Requiem in CD before, it's  a completely different matter to listen to it live. The impact is so much more powerful. It'll probably take me some time to fully assimilate these two unforgettable and emotionally powerful experiences in a single day one following so closely upon the heels of the other. It can be a bit heavy going.