Brahms Requiem

While many musicians offer differing views on the interpretations of Brahms’ works, most seem to advocate performances that passionately and clearly communicate the balance between his backward looking classicism and his forward looking harmonic and structural innovations. Brahms music confounds interpreters with his supreme mastery of all the structural components of music and how he masterfully handles such components with ease and sleight of hand. Coming from the pen of Brahms is music in which exists no conflict between technical mastery and heartfelt expressiveness.

James Levine, largely credited with the revitalization of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led an impassioned performance of Brahms A German Requiem on September 26, 2008 at Boston’s Symphony Hall. Levine, throughout the course of this performance, was not content to interpret the work as an abstract of stylistic, structural, and compositional devices but as a work deeply rooted in Biblical text and clearly relevant to modern ears. As one listened to the performance, his or her ear was constantly brought to the less obvious elements of the score. Each word of German was masterfully pronounced by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and each element word painting in the score was clearly communicated by the orchestra under Levine’s baton. However, the listener left the performance inspired by the music and text rather than the mastery of technique. Visually, Levine’s conducting brought attention to the score rather than bringing attention to his podium antics. Because of all these attributes, the listener left the performance moved by the text, emotional content, and sublimity of the work.

In this author’s experience, the most compelling performances do not necessarily communicate the structural or compositional technique of the composer. Also, the most compelling performances do not necessarily communicate the emotional pathos of the composer. The most compelling performances this author has attended and performed were performances that revealed through a perfect marriage of technique and expression the essence of the music. While podium antics elicit a thunderous applause, they do not necessarily communicate the essence of the music. (To be clear, many conductors with wild podium antics effectively achieve compelling performances but it is their mastery of the music which achieves the compelling performance not the antics.) The most compelling performances draw the listener to the essence of the music rather than the mastery of the individual performers. In this way, the microcosm of Brahms’ works illustrate the macrocosm of compelling performances regardless of the composer. Technical mastery and heartfelt expressiveness in perfect union communicate the essence of the music to the audience.

A recording can be purchased on the BSO’s website.