There are many who praise Brahms, quite justly, for his eloquence, craftsmanship and rigorous consideration of form; yet for all his refinement, he is arguably at his best when aiming for the gut. Thus one may appreciate the sophistication and ingenuity of his Second symphony, but a great performance of the Fourth can leave one breathless. The German Requiem falls somewhere in between those two extremes, and a great performance must be able to highlight not merely the austere beauty, but also the emotional volatility of Brahms’ concept. Christian Thielemann, for his second guest appearance of the season, led the combined forces of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Rundfunkchor Berlin in a performance of the German Requiem that seemed less interested in creating a mood of sustained reverence than in drawing forth the seismic shifts between…
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