Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45
Anna Lucia Richter (soprano) & Stephan Genz (baritone)
Leipzig MDR Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Marin Alsop
a sensitive and often moving account of the score. Alsop's tempos are never ponderous, in places almost brisk...at its bargain price, this honest, no-nonsense account, beautifully played and...
Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45
Anna Lucia Richter (soprano) & Stephan Genz (baritone)
Leipzig MDR Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Marin Alsop
Purchase product
a sensitive and often moving account of the score. Alsop's tempos are never ponderous, in places almost brisk...at its bargain price, this honest, no-nonsense account, beautifully played and...
About
From its disappointing initial reception, misunderstood and under-rehearsed in Vienna in 1867, Brahms’s A German Requiem (the composer, in a letter, once substituted ‘human’ for ‘German’) has since become known as one of the most powerfully charged such works in the canon. It was almost certainly the death of Brahms’s mother in 1865 that triggered his desire to write such a work. But it avoids overt Christian references, thus differing profoundly from conventional liturgical Latin Requiems, and remains deeply rooted in the tradition of Bach and Schütz.
This disc is released to coincide with Marin Alsop’s concert, with the same work, at London’s BBC Proms on 17 August 2013.
Contents and tracklist
- Anna Lucia Richter, Stephan Genz
- MDR Rundfunkchor, MDR Sinfonieorchester
- Marin Alsop
Awards and reviews
October 2013
a sensitive and often moving account of the score. Alsop's tempos are never ponderous, in places almost brisk...at its bargain price, this honest, no-nonsense account, beautifully played and sung, is certainly competitive.
10th August 2013
the performance, if a mite over-respectful, comes across as sensitively contoured, intelligently paced and immaculately balanced. The soloists, Stephan Genz and Anna Lucia Richter, combine purity and expressiveness, and the radiant MDR chorus has the music in its bones
September 2013
The Leipzig Radio Choir sounds like a large body. There are no fluffed entries and no weaknesses. The tenor are particularly impressive, with no sense of strain on the high notes. Stephan Genz is properly suppliant...and Anna Lucia Richter shows great promise
27th September 2013
Above all, it’s an asset to hear the German text delivered by native German speakers...Genz is an appropriate choice as the baritone soloist in this Leipzig performance since his musical training took place in the city...Alsop’s direction of the score is very good.
3rd August 2013
It’s a clear, unsentimental interpretation, but plodding at times in the fugues, lacking intensity and unpersuasively sung at key moments. A good antidote, though, to more indulgently romantic recordings.
