SCO, 12/05/2023

Brahms : Ein deutsches Requiem

Hanno Müller-Brachmann (baritone)

Louise Alder (soprano)

SCO Chorus

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Maxim Emelyanychev

It is more or less traditional for orchestras to end their seasons with a major choral work.  The choice of Brahms's German Requiem seemed bold for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as it usually plays with a bigger orchestral force, but Maxim Emelyanychev made the most of the lighter texture, and, orchestrally speaking, it was an intriguing experience, somewhat like listening to one-voice-to-a-part versions of the bigger Bach scores like the B minor Mass.  Emelyanychev made other choices that were a little more precarious, notably using natural brass.  

Although I usually enjoy the sound of natural brass, I don't really think it has its place here.  By the late 1860s, when Brahms completed the Requiem, both horns and trumpets were more commonly being used in their valved forms; it secured the tone and broadened the range of both instruments.  While the trumpets  were generally steady enough, the horns were subject to the usual slight irregularities that you expect with the use of natural horns, but which, here, disturbed the overall picture, notably right at the end, when slightly cracked notes ruffled the pure serenity of the final bars, a jarring touch just when you really didn't want it.

In contrast to the slimmed-down orchestra, the chorus was there in full force, 60-strong, with plenty of variety of vocal colour.  Some of the German was a little unidiomatic, vowels not rounded enough, but there was good dynamic variation, and the tricky corners (which I know well, having sung the piece a couple of times myself) were soundly negotiated.  

Louise Alder was a late replacement for the advertised Sophie Bevan.  With all due respect to Bevan, who is a lovely singer and, I'm sure, would have been more than adequate,  I was delighted to find Alder, whom I've admired for some years now, in her place.  The soprano only has the one number in the German Requiem, the achingly beautiful fifth movement, full of sorrow and consolation, and Alder delivered it beautifully, clear, dignified and touching.  Hanno Müller-Brachmann, on the other hand, who I had seen and liked in Glasgow back in 2016 as the bass soloist in the Verdi Requiem, still has an undeniably fine voice, but I found his delivery frankly operatic, and felt the theatrics were out of place in this work, and lacked decorum.

For all the interest in the sound Emelyanychev and the orchestra were producing, and the care he was clearly bringing to the score, there was still something subtly lacking from this reading, which I admit I'm having difficulty in pinning down.  The frequent scuffs in the horn parts - completely normal for natural horns, but out of place in Brahms - did not help, but more than that, it simply didn't quite sound like Brahms.  Neither chorus nor orchestra really achieved that rich glow I associate with his music, nor did the spirituality of the work quite touch me the way I know it can.  It was an honest performance, and well crafted, but it did not reach the heart of the music.

Next : 16th May