A German Requiem

The highly acclaimed Monteverdi Choir and its associate conductor Dinis Sousa will be visiting Amsterdam for performances of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. With this large-scale but restrained ‘requiem for humanity,’ Brahms created a Protestant, German-language answer to the more-common requiem mass in Latin. A requiem not for the dead, but to console those left behind.  

Recently The Monteverdi Choir was named the world’s best choir at the Oper! Awards. The collaboration with the Concertgebouw Orchestra will undoubtedly be a highlight of the concert season. Especially with the addition of baritone Christian Gerhaher and soprano Lenneke Ruiten, who, like Dinis Sousa, will be making her debut with the orchestra. In Ein deutsches Requiem for chorus, orchestra and soloists, everything falls into place. 

Brahms’ body of works clearly shows the influence of the early masters of polyphony. More specifically, Brahms was a great admirer of Heinrich Schütz, the leading Lutheran Protestant composer prior to the advent of Johann Sebastian Bach. Choral works by Schütz and Johann Christoph Bach (the Great, a distant relative of Johann Sebastian) point the way to Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem in their lyrics and text treatment.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner has withdrawn from these performances for personal reasons.