Ein deutsches Requiem (Berliner Philharmoniker feat. conductor: Simon Rattle)

by

Johannes Brahms

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Everyone who loves Brahms has a favorite recording of his uniquely beautiful and deeply moving Requiem and the competition among the varying performances is keen. For this listener, still committed to the old Klemperer, von Karajan, and Levine recordings (for varying reasons), this now Grammy award winning CD is in a class of its own. Part of the grandeur of the impact of this Requiem is the fact that it is a true capturing of a live performance, something that at times sacrifices perfect acoustics for immediacy. But here Simon Rattle conducts the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin Rundfunkchor in a richly detailed, emotionally satisfying and probing reading of this great work.

Rattle's ability to find the nearly inaudible pianissimos in the opening movement are matched only by his explosive bursts of radiant sound in the big moments. The choral sound is pure and unstrained and the mighty Berlin Philharmonic is sensitive to Rattle's every nuance. Thomas Quasthoff is the baritone soloist, producing his expected lush tone coupled with his communication of the text. Dorothea Röschmann may not erase all memories of Gundula Janowitz's exquisitely effortless solo, but hers is a radiantly beautiful voice, blooming on the top while remaining in the communication of the words. The overall effect of this recording is one of warm and eloquent Brahms and the Grammy award for finest choral performance is well deserved. Grady Harp, February 08

I was prepared to like this Brahms Requiem but am clearly parting company with most previous reviewers. I found it very underwhelming: static and even stodgy, even though I don't much like the friskier approach espoused by the likes of John Eliot Gardiner. For me, this one never manages to progress beyond an over-reverential, all-purpose melancholy which fails to acknowledge those moments when Brahms' quiet, dignified expression of grief is transfigured by a grand and noble determination to outface and rise above the debilitating effects of loss. At times the music must pick up and surge forward and I found myself yelling "Get on with it!" when Rattle doggedly sticks to a plodding jog-trot, particularly in the triumphant anthem following the outburst "Aber, des Herrn Wort" and in the great fugue in the penultimate movement. Orchestra and choir are as good as you might expect from Berlin but they are undermined by Rattle's timid literalism, and the soloists are just plain disappointing compared with more illustrious predecessors. I don't know what has happened to the normally impressive Thomas Quasthoff, but here he is definitely either out of sorts or his voice is beginning to evince disturbing signs of premature wear: the vibrato is too wide, production rocky and his tone sometimes blares. Just compare him with José van Dam in Karajan's 1983 account - actually, there is no comparison; van Dam is infinitely more alluring, more moving - and more subtle. Similarly, Dorothea Röschmann's pleasant, slightly thin voice pales into insignificance against the pure, soaring, angelic sopranos of Gundula Janowitz or Barbara Hendricks. There is not enough light and shade in this performance and it remains stubbornly earthbound; for the real deal in great sound seek out any of Karajan's three accounts, particularly that 1983 recording with the Vienna forces in superb form.