On Good Friday, April 10, 1868, about 2,500 visitors waited in Bremen Cathedral for what was to come. The then 35-year-old Brahms was to conduct his first large-scale composition: Ein deutsches Requiem. In doing so, Brahms adhered to the advice of his friend
Robert Schumann, who died twelve years earlier: 'Let him first use his magic wand with orchestra and choir.' And so it happened. A year earlier,
… the first three movements of the requiem had already sounded. Even during the "second" premiere, the piece sounded anything but as we know it today. Thus, the fifth movement Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit, which Brahms would only insert a year later, was still missing. Even more exceptional was the program in which the six-movement Ein deutsches Requiem sounded. Thus, the Requiem was cut into two parts. Between movements three and four sounded movements from violin concertos by Tartini and Bach, and Schumann's then extremely popular Abendlied, arranged for violin and the organ of Bremen Cathedral. After the final movement of the Requiem, the concert was not over, but continued with Erbarme dich from Bach's St. Matthew Passion and movements from Handel's Der Messias, including the famous Hallelujah chorus, in Mozart's arrangement. Not only in programmatic, but also in performance terms, this recording constitutes a reconstruction. Just as in 1868, hundreds of singers, from both professional and amateur choirs sing along. Although the Great Hall of the Hamburger Elbphilharmonie lent itself perfectly to this recording, the Bremen Cathedral would have been an even more interesting choice from a historical point of view.more
