Allegro Prepares for Ein Deutsches Requiem

With Allegro’s Summer Series underway, we want to give our audience a behind-the-scenes look at our next performance. 

Under the choral direction of David Fitzpatrick, Artistic Director for the Wheatland Chorale, the Wheatland Chorale Festival Singers have been preparing the vocals for Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem since May. A new ensemble of the Wheatland Chorale, the Wheatland Chorale Festival Singers is a 90-voice non-auditioned choir created to bring community singers together to perform major choral-orchestral works. Allegro Orchestra’s performance of this Brahms masterpiece is the official debut of the new group. 

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period, but one who often looked to classical forms and structures. He is considered one of the "Three Bs" of music, alongside Bach and Beethoven, and is renowned for his contributions to the symphony, concerto, chamber music, and German lieder.

Born in Hamburg, Brahms showed musical promise from a young age, studying piano, cello, and horn, and composing his earliest works while still a teenager. His career truly blossomed after he met Robert and Clara Schumann in 1853, who immediately recognized his genius. Robert Schumann, a highly influential composer and critic, published an article praising Brahms, which brought him to public attention. This meeting also marked the beginning of a lifelong, complex, and deeply supportive relationship with Clara Schumann, a celebrated pianist and composer in her own right.

While not as prolific in large-scale choral works as some of his contemporaries, his Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) stands as a monumental and deeply moving work, offering comfort and solace rather than the traditional fire and brimstone of a Latin Requiem Mass. Brahms specifically chose texts from the German Luther Bible, another departure from the traditional Latin Requiems.

Brahms was a perfectionist, often revising his works extensively and even destroying pieces he felt were not up to his standards. His music is characterized by a blend of Romantic expressiveness with Classical formal clarity and structural integrity. He was a master of counterpoint and thematic development, and his music often exhibits a melancholic or nostalgic quality, alongside moments of robust energy and profound beauty. Brahms spent the latter part of his life in Vienna, where he achieved significant recognition and became a highly respected figure in the musical world. He died in 1897, leaving behind a legacy of some of the most enduring and beloved music in the Western classical canon.

Next week, Brian Norcross, Artistic Director of Allegro Orchestra, will take over the choral preparations, allowing the WCFS time to acclimate to their concert conductor’s cues and directorial style. On the week of the concert, the choir and the orchestra will come together for the first time for the final preparations, ensuring every note is precise, each rest and consonant clear. We hope to honor Brahms’ spirit of perfectionism, presenting this monumental work with the care and dedication its creator took in composing it. Please join us on July 12 at the Barshinger Center for Musical Arts for one of the most spectacular Allegro performances of the season! Get your tickets before they sell out here!