Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid, Marzena Diakun & Agnieszka Rehlis - Brahms: Orchestral & Vocal Works (2023) [24/96]

The Brahms vocal compositions (for their quality and abundance – over 400 of them) made Brahms a “worthy heir to Beethoven” in Germany, throughout Europe, and finally in France, where Ravel was the first and one of the few to admire “the beauty in his melodic ideas, their quality of expression and above all the brilliance of his orchestral language”. Schoenberg also later praised the innovation of his musical language in his Style and Idea.

The excellence of Brahms’ work was summed up by Joseph Joachim, the celebrated Hungarian violinist, composer and conductor who worked with Brahms, and who described his music as “pure as a diamond, soft as the snow”. Schumann also praised the serenity and optimism of the tone with which Brahms ended his most sombre and tormented pieces: “Over choppy waves finally a rainbow shimmers, as the nightingale’s song accompanies the capricious flight of the butterfly”. This album compiles some of the most important vocal & orchestral works that best define the German composer.

Brahms was enchanted by the music of female voices, and in 1859 he founded a choir for women in Hamburg, which attained excellence, and for which he composed Four Songs, Op. 17 with accompaniment for two horns and harp from three poems by Tuperti, Shakespeare and Eichendorff, and the fourth based on a page from Ossian’s Fingal. The composition, with its balance of joyful (1 and 3) and somber melodies, met with great success. To listen to Brahms’ songs as he conducted, from high in the branches of a tree at the summer concerts in the gardens outside Hamburg, would surely be an unforgettable experience.

Orquesta y Coro Comunidad de Madrid
Marzena Diakun – Conductor
Josep Vila I Casanas – Choir Master
Agnieszka Rehlis – Mezzo-Soprano

Tracklist:
01. Schicksalslied von Friedrich Hölderlin op 54 - Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll
02. Vier Gesänge op 17 - 1. Es tönt ein voller Harfenklang
03. Vier Gesänge op 17 - 2. Lied von Shakespeare
04. Vier Gesänge op 17 - 3. Der Gärtner
05. Vier Gesänge op 17 - 4. Gesang aus Fingal
06. Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 1. Rede, Mädchen, allzuliebes
07. Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 2. Am Gesteine rauscht die Flut
08. Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 4. Wie des Abends schöne Röte
09. Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 6. Ein kleiner, hübscher Vogel nahm den Flug
10. Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 5. Die grüne Hopfenranke
11. Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 11. Nein, es ist nicht auszukommen
12. Rhapsodie Op 53
13. Nänie op 82
14. Gesang der Parzen von Goethe Op. 89


Thanks to the Original customer!