Johannes Brahms : Œuvres pour chœur & orchestre

Approfondimenti

Brahms' works for chorus account for a significant part of his output, far greater than would be guessed by the frequency of their performances in modern times, apart from Ein deutsches Requiem. His music for mixed choirs and women's voices, either a cappella or accompanied by piano, are the works that were the most often performed during his lifetime because of their dissemination through the proliferation of amateur community choirs of the era. He wrote relatively few works for chorus and orchestra, most of them in the later part of his career, and this CD brings together an attractive selection of five of them. The most familiar are the Rhapsodie for alto, men's voices, and orchestra, Op. 53, and Schicksalslied for choir and orchestra, Op. 54. Brahms wrote them not long after completing his Requiem, and it's easy to hear echoes of its depths of feeling and musical language in these shorter, but still profound pieces. Gesang der Parzen, Op. 89, his last choral-orchestral work, a setting of Goethe, also deserves broader exposure. It's perhaps the most eccentric musically, filled with unpredictable shifts in direction, but it makes a strong mystical impression particularly in its haunting final moments.
The remaining works, the early Begräbnisgesang, Op. 13, and the motet, Warum ist das Licht gegeben, Op. 74/1, may be less likely to find wide audiences, but they are nonetheless satisfying and richly lyrical and are bound to interest the composer's fans and anyone who loves sumptuous Romantic choral music. Phillipe Herreweghe leads Collegium Vocale Gent, a group he founded in 1970, and it's evident from the easy give and take of the performance that there is fluid communication between them. The group sings with seamless phrasing and remarkable subtlety of dynamic inflections. Ann Hallenberg, usually known as a Baroque specialist, brings a light, pure, warmly focused mezzo to the Alto Rhapsody. The sound is clean and ambient, with a good sense of presence.

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