A German Requiem Johannes Brahms
(1833-1897) (Piano duet version)
Brahms’ Requiem is the composer’s heartfelt response to the deaths of two important people in his life: his friend and mentor, composer Robert Schumann, who died in 1856, and his own mother, who died in 1865. These two trauma clearly focused Brahms’ emotional and creative attentions. Nor should the influence of Clara Schumann (Robert’s spouse and eventual widow) on Brahms, both personally and musically, be underestimated.
This work is not a typical Requiem, which traditionally, is a musical setting of a funeral mass in Latin. Normally, it is organised in liturgical sections such as Kyrie, Dies Irae, Offertorium, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Libera Me, but Brahms instead uses German Lutheran Bible passages to suit his theme of “sorrow turned into joy.” – a hope that earthly grief will soon pass into the comfort of heavenly eternity. These differing Protestant-Roman Catholic understandings of Requiem form affected contemporary reactions to Brahms’ work. Early versions of the Requiem were received far better in Protestant northern Germany, than in Roman Catholic Vienna. It was (and still is) sometimes criticised as insufficiently Christian, in not referring directly to Christ or to Christ’s redemptive death and resurrection.
Also unusual for a Requiem Mass, was for it to be composed in any language except Latin. While he was at work composing his German-language Requiem during the years of the Franco-Prussian War, and completed the Requiem only two years before the unification of Germany in 1871, Brahms demurred at the question whether the work had patriotic or nationalistic motives, saying that even though he called it “A German Requiem,” he preferred to think of it as a “Human” Requiem. Yet Brahms knew his Bible well and was quite devout, especially in the strong pietism of nineteenth century German Lutheranism
Brahms himself composed the piano version (originally for four hands at one piano but often played at two pianos, as in tonight’s performance), not merely as a reduction of the orchestral score, but an independent composition. The first complete (except the fifth movement, that was not yet written at the time) performance of this version of the Requiem took place in London, in July 1871 at the home of Sir Henry Thompson and his wife, the pianist Kate Loder (Lady Thompson). It used this piano-duet accompaniment and was sung in English.
Brahms himself was one of the great pianists of his day. In fact, it was only with the Requiem that he established his reputation as more than a pianist. At least two sections of the Requiem originally began as compositions for piano. Soon after Robert Schumann’s attempted suicide in 1854 Brahms composed a march movement for a planned two-piano sonata. The piano-duet format also had special significance for Brahms, given his many impromptu duets with Clara in the Schumann home. Brahms’ lifelong affections for Clara were so deep (even if platonic), that he continued to manage her family’s household affairs for many years following Robert’s death.