Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem

Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem

The Sunday Morning Concert brings you wonderful and much-loved compositions, performed by top musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. Enjoy the most beautiful music in the morning! You can make your Sunday complete by enjoying a delicious post-concert lunch in restaurant LIER.The Royal Concertgebouw is one of the best concert halls in the world, famous for its exceptional acoustics and varied programme. Attend a concert and have an experience you will never forget. Come and enjoy inspiring music in the beautiful surroundings of the Main Hall or the intimate Recital Hall.

Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem / Raphaël Pichon

»I have now found solace.« With these words, Johannes Brahms put the core of his monumental »German Requiem« in a nutshell: the deceased do not take centre stage as usual, but the bereaved. They are to find solace through the moving music and can cope with their grief. Brahms knew how to utilise choir and orchestra extremely effectively and created both deeply sad and devastating moments as well as comforting ones: in this way, life and death manifest in all their aspects. With French conductor Raphaël Pichon, a proficient expert and avowed fan of German repertoire now brings Brahms’ Requiem to the Elbphilharmonie. The ensemble Pygmalion, formed by him, assist him once more. This ensemble is well versed in period performance and its concerts are captivating due to their particular transparency and intimacy. Soprano Sabine Devieilhe and baritone Stéphane Degout also perform the solo parts. And Pichon also draws attention to Brahms’ musical roots: this way, we hear early baroque a-cappella music before the »German Requiem« – a tradition with which Brahms had also intensively grappled.

Johannes Brahms / Un requiem allemand

Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion in Brahms’ deeply moving A German Requiem, with their loyal collaborators Sabine Devieilhe and Stéphane Degout as solists.

Duruflé: Requiem

Not many works of the 20th century are as commonplace on concert programmes today as the music of Maurice Duruflé, who died in 1986. His sacred vocal music in particular enjoys enduring popularity, no doubt due to its catchy tonal language. Duruflé had little interest in breaking with tradition; in his Requiem of 1947, he explored the model of Gabriel Fauré, two generations his senior, and gave free rein to his enthusiasm for Gregorian chant. Nevertheless, the work is not backward-looking: in contrast to the operatic settings of the requiem mass in the 19th century, Duruflé focussed less on the agony of the Last Judgement and more on redemption in the afterlife. The second of three versions of the Requiem will be performed at the Kulturkirche Altona. Duruflé – probably surprised himself by the great success of his work – transferred the lavish orchestration to the organ soon after the premiere.

Mozart: Requiem

What would have happened if Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had had time to complete his Requiem? What worlds might have opened up to us if the then 35-year-old had not been carried off in 1791 by the »severe miliary fever« – a diagnosis that has not been clearly identified to this day? Now his last, most mysterious and existential work has remained a fragment – albeit skilfully completed by Franz Xaver Süßmayr. It is only logical that the world-famous Dresdner Kreuzchor (boys’ choir) understands the fragmentary nature of the Requiem as a quality and sets it with works by a contemporary composer who is known for his deeply spiritual attitude like almost no other: Arvo Pärt. At the Elbphilharmonie, compositions by the Estonian composer are combined with the masterly sounds of Mozart to create a new whole that illuminates death – and life – from a perspective between then and now.

Dresdner Requiem

Ein Wintermärchen

Contemplative music and stories belong to the Advent season like the decorated tree to Christmas. »A Winter’s Tale« combines popular German Christmas songs and texts in a varied literary-musical interplay to create a very special programme – and has become a cherished tradition at Christmas time. The fact that a top-class ensemble around star violinist Daniel Hope could be won for this speaks for itself. They are assisted by the unique Katharina Thalbach, who with her unmistakable voice and her inimitable acting skills always takes a humorous and critical look at the festival of love.

Ein Wintermärchen

Contemplative music and stories belong to the Advent season like the decorated tree to Christmas. »A Winter’s Tale« combines popular German Christmas songs and texts in a varied literary-musical interplay to create a very special programme – and has become a cherished tradition at Christmas time. The fact that a top-class ensemble around star violinist Daniel Hope could be won for this speaks for itself. They are assisted by the unique Katharina Thalbach, who with her unmistakable voice and her inimitable acting skills always takes a humorous and critical look at the festival of love.

Ein Wintermärchen

Contemplative music and stories belong to the Advent season like the decorated tree to Christmas. »A Winter’s Tale« combines popular German Christmas songs and texts in a varied literary-musical interplay to create a very special programme – and has become a cherished tradition at Christmas time. The fact that a top-class ensemble around star violinist Daniel Hope could be won for this speaks for itself. They are assisted by the unique Katharina Thalbach, who with her unmistakable voice and her inimitable acting skills always takes a humorous and critical look at the festival of love.

Ein Wintermärchen

Contemplative music and stories belong to the Advent season like the decorated tree to Christmas. »A Winter’s Tale« combines popular German Christmas songs and texts in a varied literary-musical interplay to create a very special programme – and has become a cherished tradition at Christmas time. The fact that a top-class ensemble around star violinist Daniel Hope could be won for this speaks for itself. They are assisted by the unique Katharina Thalbach, who with her unmistakable voice and her inimitable acting skills always takes a humorous and critical look at the festival of love.