Ein deutsches Requiem

A Starter will take place prior to this concert. You can attend this in the Swing on the second floor to the left of cloakroom. The Starter starts 45 minutes before the concert begins.

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Symphony No. 7 in C, op. 105 (1924)

Phantasia Sinfonica
Jean Sibelius' Seventh Symphony has a long genesis. As early as 1914, the first traces of the work are recognizable in utterances and sketches by the composer. In 1918 he spoke of the symphony as an upbeat four-movement work full of joie de vivre with a "Hellenic rondo" as its finale. In the following years he made some sketches, but as time went on they concentrated mainly on one movement with an initially slow tempo. Sibelius gradually decided to write a one-movement work and in 1923 made an elaborate draft along these lines. Its completion cost him quite a few headaches. He had long suffered from a tremor on his hand, which made writing difficult. As a dubious remedy, he drank large amounts of alcohol which did not exactly help his mental clarity. But by the end of 1924, the work was finished. He initially called it a "Phantasia Sinfonica," but decided after the premiere to make it a "symphony" to avoid confusion with his symphonic poems. 

Aino
At first glance, the music of the Seventh Symphony seems quite chaotic. It is a succession of themes, motifs, keys and tempi, the analysis of which does require a few pages. But actually that is not necessary at all. Basic is the key of C major and a majestic theme he called "Aino" in his sketches, after his beloved wife. Whatever passes, these two elements recur as a firm hold with some regularity and culminate in grand climax at the end. It sounds like a fairy tale in which all sorts of things happen that you, the listener, can think up for yourself, but ends with a beautiful "they lived happily ever after. 

At intermission, we will serve a complimentary drink.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45 (1865-1868) 

• Selig sind, die da Leid tragen (Ziemlich langsam und mit Ausdruck) 

• Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras (Langsam, marschmäßig) 

• Herr, lehre doch mich (Andante moderato) 

• Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (Mäßig bewegt) 

• Ihr habt nur Traurigkeit (Langsam) 

• Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt (Andante) 

• Selig sind die Toten (Feierlich) 

Beloved Mother
In 1856 Johannes Brahms, still only 23 years old, faced death hard. He had befriended the Schumann family living in Düsseldorf and experienced at close quarters the madness and tragic death in an asylum of Robert Schumann. It gave Brahms the idea of composing a tribute, not according to the traditional requiem, but a collection of biblical texts about the transience of life and comfort for the bereaved. For the time being it did not materialize but in 1861 he conceived it again. First he selected texts from the German translation of the Bible. He also composed a few parts, but then put it aside again. A new impulse came in 1865 with the death of his mother, to whom he had been very fond. Seeking solace in music, Brahms picked up his Deutsches Requiem again and completed it in the following two years. After its successful premiere in Bremen in 1868, Brahms added an additional movement, giving the work its final completion. 

Comfort for fellow man
Although Brahms had received a religious upbringing in the Lutheran tradition, faith had lost much of its meaning for him over the years. He relied much more on the valuable thing he sought in his fellow man than he did from Biblical dogma. This is readily apparent in the choice of text in Ein deutsches Requiem . It is not about divine providence in the hour of death, but much more about the human approach to the finiteness of life and the comfort that bereaved families can offer each other. Consolation is therefore one of the key concepts of the composition that is central to the first and seventh, Last movements. Parts two and six contrast the temporality of the earthly and the eternity of the heavenly. Another step inward, parts three and five contrast each other. In part three man laments his mortality, but in part five it is the confidence in comfort that makes mortality acceptable. It brings us to part four, the heart of the play. This is about the "lovely dwellings" - whatever that might be exactly - in which man's departed soul can find its rest. And that was the essence for the humanist Brahms to accept the brevity of human life. 

Kees Wisse