BRAHMS REQUIEM - ISLINGTON CHORAL SOCIETY

One of London’s foremost choirs will be making their first visit to Malta to sing Johann Brahms’ majestic Requiem (Ein Deutsches Requiem). The Islington Choral Society will be joined by soprano Jenny Stafford, baritone Alistair Ollerenshaw and pianists Laurence Williams and Cameron Richardson-Eames for a performance conducted by the choir’s musical director Michael Waldron. The Requiem, which Brahms completed in 1866, is in seven movements and is his longest work (about 75 minutes). It is a sacred piece, but not liturgical. Instead of using the text of the Latin Requiem Mass for the dead, Brahms set words from the Lutheran Bible to produce a work of consolation for those left behind. While he was writing it, he referred to it as Eine Art deutsches Requiem – ‘A sort of German Requiem’. He later declared that he would have gladly called it Ein menschliches Requiem– ‘A human Requiem’. It is the human message of compassion and consolation for the bereaved that distinguishes this Requiem from all others. This is the composition that established Brahms, then in his mid-thirties, as a composer of major stature. It is one of his grandest creations, and one of the most enduring choral works of all time. This concert presents the version of the Requiem that Brahms arranged for chorus, soloists and two pianos.