Pannon Philharmonic

Conductor

János Kovács

Soloist

Kinga Kriszta

soprano

Béla Perencz

baritone

About the Programme

The German Requiem, which had been written in 1866 but was premiered in its seven-part form, as is known  today, only two years later, in 1869 and the Schicksalslied (Destiny's Song), staged in 1871, are clearly considered by the history of music as Johannes Brahms's most prominent choral works. For the German Requiem, orchestrated for a soprano, a baritone, a mixed choir and a large orchestra, as its title indicates, the texts had been handpicked by the master in an unconventional way from Luther’s Bible translation; the music tried to revoke the art of such masters of the German Baroque as Johann Sebastian Bach or Heinrich Schütz, who also composed his own requiem on his mother tongue. The three-movement Schicksalsied, which is based on Friedrich Hölderlin's poem by the same title and written for choir and orchestra, is also a grim, tragic tone work; but its magical ending reflects reconciliation and sublime peace after the concealment of a complaining human voice.