Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45; Schütz: Selig sind die Toten, SWV391,
Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, SWV29 – Katharine Fuge (soprano), Matthew Brook (bass-baritone), The Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre révolutionnaire et romantique, Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Following the phenomenal worldwide success of the series of Brahms’s Symphonies (nominated in the orchestral category of the 2009 BBC Music Awards), SDG is happy to present the last recording issuing from the tour Brahms: Roots and Memories of 2008, in which Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his ensembles explored the music of Johannes Brahms.

Ein deutsches Requiem is presented along with pieces by Heinrich Schütz (1585 – 1672) which might have inspired its composition, giving the listener a new insight into Brahms’s mind and music making.

Deeply moving, profound, and powerful, the Requiem is central to our understanding of Brahms’s compositional personality and inner spiritual life. Behind its dramatic gestures and nineteenth-century grandeur, it reveals Brahms’s deep involvement with folksong and the music of the past. The text, assembled by Brahms himself based on the Lutheran Bible, makes it a definitive personal statement of his position in matters of religion.