Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Orchestral & Vocal Works
Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny), Op 54 (1871)
Four Songs for women’s choir, two horns and harp, Op 17
Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op 52 (Nos 1, 2, 4, 6, 5 and 11)
Alto Rhapsody, Op 53
Nänie, Op 82
Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates), Op 89
Agnieszka Rehlis (mezzo-soprano)
Orchestra and Choir of the Community of Madrid/Marzena Diakun
rec. 2023, Teatro Auditorio San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid
Texts and translations provided
IBS Classical IBS132023 [73]
The Orchestra and Choir of the Community of Madrid (ORCAM) is a relatively new body that was created on the initiative of the Madrid city council, the choir in 1984 and the orchestra in 1987. Marzena Diakun, who directs this Brahms collection, spent three years as the orchestra’s Artistic Director. Her successor from the beginning of the present season is Mexican conductor, Alondra de la Parra, something of a controversial appointment, at least if you choose to attach any importance to the depressingly vituperative contributors to Norman Lebrecht’s website, Slipped Disc. The orchestra has made a number of recordings, including several on the Naxos label. The choir works under the direction of Josep Vila I Casañas. Some of us are, I fear, guilty of dismissing Spain as a country that produces musicians of quality. This disc will make us think again.
The opening work, Shicksalslied, was composed, as so often with Brahms, over a number of years and completed in 1871. The performance is a very fine one, with singing and playing to a standard that is maintained and confirmed throughout the collection. The orchestral introduction perfectly evokes the heavenly calm of Hölderlin’s words, an effect underlined in this performance by maintaining a strict regular beat that only rarely, and with the utmost good taste, resorts to rubato. Control of phrasing and dynamics is exemplary. When the choir enters – their opening phrase given to Brahms’s beloved alto voices – we note choral singing of great homogeneity, tonal beauty and impeccable tuning. The contrast with the stormy second passage, evoking the miserable fate that awaits those of us on earth, shocks, as it should. This is singing and playing of considerable skill and precision, and the conductor and her engineers have achieved a perfect balance between choir and orchestra. The text ends with mankind flung into the abyss, but Brahms was reluctant to close the work in that vein, and instead provides us with an orchestral postlude in a warm, richly scored, C major. The work ends, then, in an atmosphere of consolation hardly justified by the text. No matter, it works wonderfully well, especially in a performance as sensitive and beautifully paced as this one.
The Vier Gesänge, Op 17 were new to me, and a real find, if a slightly perplexing one. One doesn’t necessarily associate Brahms with the harp, not until, that is, you remember its role in the German Requiem. The horn, on the other hand, was of great importance to the composer, and he understood its characteristics and possibilities completely. There is no theme or link between the four texts, one of which is none other than ‘Come away, death’ from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, well known to lovers of English song. All four texts are unrelievedly gloomy, yet the music is anything but. The Shakespeare setting, dispatched in a minute and a half, seems almost jaunty, with hunting horn calls and an abrupt ending. The longest song is the final one, in which the heroine mourns for her fallen lover. Much is made of the word ‘weinen’ (to weep), and, unusually for Brahms, there is even a little direct word-painting of the dogs left howling at home. The song ends calmly in the major key, however. Anyone who has conducted a vocal group with harp accompaniment knows that the singers often find the instrument difficult to hear. No problems are in evidence here, and if the women’s voices tend to richness, with occasional pronounced vibrato, the sonority is in keeping with the repertoire. The instrumental playing is first class.
The Liebeslieder-Walzer (Love Song Waltzes) have a complicated history. The work is a set of 18 short songs to texts by Georg Friedrich Daumer (1800-1875) for four-part mixed choir and piano duet accompaniment. As the title suggests, they are all in triple time, some vivacious, others more contemplative. The whole set was later published without the voices, and Brahms orchestrated eight of them, of which six are performed here. It’s a jolly selection, gay, light-hearted, ending with the very lively No 11.
That the young Brahms was in love with Clara Schumann is well known. Pierre Élie Mamou’s booklet notes refer to this, but also give considerable weight to the notion that his feelings were later transferred to Clara and Robert Schumann’s daughter, Julia. This aspect of the story was new to me, and I confess that I haven’t, for the moment, investigated further. It may well be that the Liebeslieder-Walzer were expressions of the composer’s feelings for Julia, and that the Alto Rhapsody was indeed designed as a wedding gift for her, albeit composed ‘in rage and fury’. Any performance of this ravishing work is bound to be judged by the quality of the alto soloist. Agnieszka Rehlis acquits herself very well, her voice better suited to medium and lower registers than it is near the top of the stave. In the first two sections, the solo line is often ungrateful to sing, with wide leaps and phrases that sometimes seem to grate against the accompanying harmonies. Rehlis negotiates this rocky terrain well enough, and most will be satisfied, though a performance has to be very fine indeed to begin to rival those from the most celebrated mezzo-soprano names. The men’s voices are excellent.
With a duration of eleven and twelve minutes respectively, and requiring large orchestral forces, the two remaining works are difficult to programme and performances are rare. This disc provides a perfect opportunity to get to know them. Both works set texts that explore lofty, mythological ideas, with Nänie the more approachable of the two, sweeter in sound and with some lovely writing for the oboe. The choral writing in Gesang der Parzen is in six parts, and other notable features include the implacable march rhythm and the surprising sound of the piccolo in the final bars. The performances of both works confirm the highly favourable impression given by the earlier part of the programme. The listener is struck throughout by the careful attention to details in the score, as well as the exceptional preparation of the choir by Josep Vila I Casañas. Anyone in the market for a comprehensive collection of Brahms’s shorter accompanied choral works need not hesitate.
William Hedley
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