Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Ein Deutsches Requiem (1868) [76:53]
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone); Elisabeth Grümmer (soprano)
Choir of St Hedwig’s Cathedral Berlin
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Rudolf Kempe
rec. June 1955, Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin. ADD
NAXOS 8.111342 [76:53]
This famous recording wasn’t alone in impinging itself on the record-buying
consciousness of the mid-1950s public. Karajan’s earlier 1947 recording
in Vienna (Naxos 8.111038) with Hotter and Schwarzkopf offered, then as now,
strong challenges. A year before Kempe’s recording with them, the Berlin
Philharmonic was in action again, this time under the direction of Fritz Lehmann
(DG 457-710-2). This is to say nothing of later recordings such as that
by Klemperer or archival survivals, such as Furtwängler’s, or the
recently-disinterred live 1954 Gunther Ramin performance (Archipel ARPCD0289),
much less the wartime English-language version from Toscanini, all of which
have subsequently emerged.
Karajan’s recording had a powerful intensity, whilst Lehmann’s
and Kempe’s offered somewhat more conciliatory approaches. There are
certainly consonances between these last two, and not just because the choral
and orchestral forces are the same (Lehmann actually also used the Berliner
Motettenchor), though Fischer-Dieskau and Elisabeth Grümmer are on balance
a more formidable duo than Otto Wiener and Maria Stader.
The well-blended choral work of the experienced Choir of St Hedwig’s
Cathedral Berlin is notable, as is the finely judged, flexible tempi taken
by Kempe. The important harp contribution is audible, but over and above such
individual voices lies the sense of spirituality - often invoked, difficult
precisely to define, but unanswerable when one hears it - that Kempe generates.
The contrastive elements in Denn alles Fleisch, ones that some conductors
push almost floridly, are here built into the fabric of the writing and are
never startlingly out of scale. Kempe builds the movement with sure architectural
logic and strength, bringing out the youthful elements of the choral forces.
Perhaps to some he may stint on the sheer weight of things - but it remains
a conception both logical and profound.
Fischer-Dieskau is predictably fine in his contributions. His Denn wir haben for
instance is sung with breadth of tone and an inner tension. Grümmer’s
consoling Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit is equally affecting and lacks an
imparted ‘edge’ to her tone. She is one of the most communicative
singers on record in this role.
So this performance, fifty-five years on, offers the grandest and noblest of
perspectives to those for whom the very occasional congestion of the sound
proves immaterial. Transfer philosophies enhance the listening pleasure.
Jonathan Woolf
see also reviews by Göran
Forsling and William
Hedley