Search - Brahms, Coote, Bmg :: Nanie / Alt-Rhapsody (Hybr)

Brahms for Chorus and Orchestra

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 04/08/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Brahms' most popular and greatest work for chorus and orchestra is, of course, his Requiem. But he wrote a number of other choral and orchestral works, among them the four works presented here: Nänie, Gesang der Parzen, the Alto Rhapsody, and Schicksallied. They are all led by a current poster-boy among young conductors, the twenty-seven year old London-born Robin Ticciati who is music director of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Bamberg Symphony which he conducts on this CD. The excellent choir in these works is the Chorus of Bavarian Radio (Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks).



'Nänie'('Nenia' in English; Nenia was the Roman goddess of funerals and the word has come to designate a funeral dirge) is set to a poem by Schiller (beautifully translated into English in the booklet by Emily Ezust) that laments that all living things must die. Brahms wrote it after the death of a dear friend, painter of classical subjects Anselm Feuerbach. 'Gesang der Parzen' ('Song of the Fates') is Brahms' last work for chorus and orchestra. Written to words from the text of drama, 'Iphigenia in Tauris' by Goethe, the poem points out the imbalance between the powers of the gods and of mere mortals. Darkly orchestrated with emphasized use of lower-toned instruments, the work is stark and offers little consolation.



The 'Alto Rhapsody', sung beautifully here by the extraordinarily talented English mezzo Alice Coote and the male chorus, is a poem written when Brahms had suffered a rejection in love. The text, 'Harzreise im Winter' ('Winter Journey in the Hartz Mountains'), is a Goethe poem that depicts a mentally distraught young man's reaction to rejection by his lover. The work is for mezzo and transparently-scored orchestra; the male chorus joins in the third and final stanza in which a plea is made for God to restore the young man's broken heart. This is a gorgeous, glowing performance that does not, however, erase memories of recordings by Christa Ludwig, Janet Baker, Marian Anderson or Kathleen Ferrier.



The final work is 'Schicksalslied' ('Song of Destiny'), written very close in time to the Alto Rhapsody. It conveys the ancient Greek notion that man has no defense against the will of the gods, and in tone it is close to that of 'Nänie'. The music is, simply put, sublimely luminous throughout except for the dramatic passage written to the text that says 'there is granted no place for us to rest; we vanish, we fall ...' The Bayerischen Rundfunks chorus outdoes themselves in this performance. I got goosebumps.



Sound is excellent in both SACD and plain stereo, although the recording level is a little low.



Recommended.



Scott Morrison

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