Search - Håkan Hagegård, Johannes Brahms, James Levine :: Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem

Highest Praise!

Roger W. Wood | Jacksonville, Florida | 11/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I will make a rather short review since I have written about other performances. I will make it direct and simple.



This may be the finest performance I have ever heard of this music I truly cherish. If this is an indication of Levine's Brahms and Hillis' choral direction, then I want to hear more. I own a lot of Deutches Requiems, and I own some very good ones. Some truly excellent ones. I have loved every one I have heard and evaluated.



I threw away a number of Requiems in the past, ones that failed to reckon seriously with the religious and devotional content. To me one just cannot conduct a Deutsches Requiem without understanding and communicating the devotional that permeates the whole thing -- that is, the text and the music adapted to the text. This is the historic Martin Luther Bible with theological references to the resurrection, the return of the Lord (2 guesses who that is in Brahms' mind), the joy of the faithful in the Lord, etc. Without reflection of that, one misses the whole point of this music. It's a joke that it's for humanists and atheists, although personally I hope non-believers love it too. This is not a joystick for non-believers. But this is a music of faith for faith in others, otherwise Brahms might have quoted some Chinese poem, as did Mahler (and I love that too). If not religious in purpose, then it is mouthing and musings about little of nothing.



I say all that to bring a little reality to some of the dialogue I hear and see about the purpose of Brahm's Deutsches Requiem. I think Levine and Hillis together have captured the essence of what Brahms wanted the audience to get. And they do it with aplomb and skill and love. What power they pack into their pacing of this work. I was also impressed with the soloists. Nobody in this recording failed to earn glowing comment from me. This is to me the greatest single performance of Johannes Brahms' Deutsches Requiem I have heard to date. Get it while it is available."