Join us on Sunday, May 12 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, May 13 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you the profoundly moving German Requiem by Johannes Brahms. As a prelude, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a choral piece specifically commissioned for performance alongside Brahms’ masterwork. Both works feature the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir. Jeanine De Bique, soprano, and Christopher Maltman, bass, are soloists in the German Requiem.
The German Requiem carries an overarching message of comfort for those who mourn, and has become justly celebrated for its depth of feeling. But its form was a huge departure for a 19th-century composer like Brahms. In 1865, writing a “Requiem” meant setting the Latin text of the Roman Catholic funeral liturgy, with its harrowing depictions of the last judgment and pleas for sins to be forgiven. Brahms carefully avoided that tradition. A native of Northern Germany, a firmly Protestant region, he would have grown up with Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible. Though not devoutly religious, Brahms knew his scriptures well. He selected verses that offered a more universal and unifying viewpoint of solace and hope to those who mourn, juxtaposing passages from the New and Old Testaments and the Apocrypha with great sensitivity. The composer himself was grieving as he began work on the Requiem in 1865. His beloved mother had died early that year, and he also had felt keenly the death of Robert Schumann, his mentor, several years earlier.
To open the program, Yannick leads a brief contemporary choral piece intended specifically for performance alongside the German Requiem, with a similar message of hope and comfort. Oraison (“Prayer”) was composed by the Cuban-Canadian composer Luis Ernesto Peña Laguna during the COVID lockdown in 2021. It’s a tribute to the pandemic’s victims, to those who survived, and especially to those who cared for others during that fraught time.
The text, from a poem by Jean Massard, is in four languages: French, English, Latin, and Spanish. The use of several languages, according to the composer, “speaks to the fact that COVID has affected the entire planet.” The opening text is a cry for mercy, followed by an allusion to the Latin liturgical text “Requiem aeternam” — “Grant them eternal rest, O Lord.” Finally, a Spanish-language passage looks hopefully forward and the piece ends with choral whispers, a curiously comforting effect that is especially apt before the serene opening of the Brahms work.
PROGRAM:
Peña Laguna: Oraison
Brahms: A German Requiem, Op. 45
The Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Symphonic Choir
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Jeanine De Bique, soprano
Christopher Maltman, baritone
WRTI PRODUCTION TEAM:
Melinda Whiting: Host
Alex Ariff: Senior Producer
Joseph Patti: Broadcast Engineer
Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts every Sunday at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, streaming at WRTI.org, on the WRTI mobile app, and on your smart speaker. Listen again on Mondays at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2. Listen for up to two weeks after broadcast on WRTI Replay.
