Also this evening :
Brahms first considered writing a Requiem Mass after the death of his close friend Robert Schumann, but was only catapulted into its composition a decade later after the death of his mother caused him inconsolable grief. He completed his tribute to her four years later with a mass unlike any conventional Requiem. Conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi, Ein deutsches Requiem sets sections of Luther’s translation of the Bible, dwelling far more on the hope of the resurrection than on the fear of Judgement Day. The first movement, ‘Blessed are they that mourn’, consoles those that remain on Earth with achingly beautiful suspensions from the chorus; the work moves through divinely beautiful music to the dramatic highlight of Brahms’s tone-painting of the resurrection of the dead. Yet the work ends back on an earthly level, a reminder that we cannot know what awaits us.
This concert is part of the Philharmonia's series "The still point of the turning world": Music that defines an era
Click here to view an interactive online version of the Autumn-Winter 2011/12 season brochure.
More concerts in this series:
Ashkenazy conducts in London
May 24 2012, 19:30 - Royal Festival Hall
Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts Shostakovich's Babi Yar Symphony, an epic piece of powerful criticism. Also performed is Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, performed by Nobuyuki Tsujii
Salonen conducts in London
Jun 28 2012, 19:30 - Royal Festival Hall
Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Mahler's Resurrection Symphony and the world première of Joseph Phibbs's Rivers to the Sea









