David Geffen
Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat
Z103, $69.50).
Program
Ein deustsches
Requiem (A German Requiem) Op. 45 (1866-68) by Brahms (1833-97).
Artists
Camilla Tilling,
soprano; Matthias Goerne, baritone.
New York Choral
Artists – Joseph Flummerfelt, director.
Per the
Playbill, this was last performed by the New York Philharmonic in 2007, with
Lorin Maazel the conductor. Looking back
at my blog, we attended a concert in that series.
Frankly I had
forgotten everything about the piece, other than it was in German and didn’t
use the standard Latin liturgy. Many
aspects of the composition distinguish it: no lamb of God, no Days of Wrath, no
Kyrie Eleison. Instead we find the
following seven movements: (i) Blessed are they that mourn, (ii) For all flesh
is as grass, (iii) Lord, teach me, (iv) How amiable are Thy tabernacles, (v) Ye
now therefore have sorrow, (vi) For here have we no continuing city, and (vii)
Blessed are the dead. Other than some
passages from the books “Wisdom of Solomon” and “Ecclesiasticus,” the lyrics
are taken from the Bible. It is
interesting that the requiem begins with “blessed are they that mourn” and ends
with “blessed are the dead.”
Many criticize
the lyrics’ not mentioning the redemptive work of Christ (Agnus Dei), and to
one critic Brahms replied “I can neither argue away nor strike out a ‘from
henceforth’ from my venerable poets.”
Indeed the German phrase “von nun on,” found in the last movement, was
used many times.
The choral part
of (vi), talking about God’s glory, honor, and power, was one of the loudest
passages of the requiem. Even though von
Dohnanyi held his arms up, many in the audience applauded anyway. That was perhaps an understandable mistake as
I found it difficult to follow along the German text, even with some knowledge
of German. To me the inability of the
chorus to articulate the words with precision was the weakest aspect of the
performance. This turns out was my same
complaint about the 2007 performance.
The 80-plus strong ensemble otherwise did a good job, responding well to
the direction of the conductor.
The orchestra did
a good job, with the cellos putting in a particularly good reading. Anne was listening for the trumpets (in (vi)
we have ‘for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised’) but couldn’t
hear it; I didn’t even think of listening for it. In any case, the score calls for only two
trumpets.
The requiem
lasted about 75 minutes, considerably longer than the advertised 60
minutes. The soloists had little to
do. Actually it had to be about 45 or
more minutes into the performance before Tilling got to sing her short aria. It didn’t begin well, it sounded as if she
needed some warm up exercises. The notes
rose quickly to a very high pitch (can’t tell what note it is,) and Tilling
simply sounded strained. She improved as
things progressed, but not enough to redeem the performance. Goerne was also the soloist for the 2007
series, he put in a solid performance.
Despite many
things being slightly off, it was an enjoyable performance. Von Dohnanyi is 86 years old, but appeared to
be much younger. There was a high stool
on the podium, which he only made use of for a couple of minutes after the
fourth movement (if memory serves.)
Curtain call with Tilling, von Dohnanyi, and Goerne.
The New YorkTimes review characterizes the performance as “exquisitely prepared and
performed,” and an “occasion not to be missed.”
There were a few minor complaints, particularly about the soloists.
We stopped by
the newly-reopened Europan for dinner afterwards. We still managed to get back to Jersey City a
bit after 10 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment