Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem

An intense musical evening

With Ralph Vaughan Williams’s »Dona Nobis Pacem« and Johannes Brahms’s »German Requiem«, the Hamburg Oratorio Choir performs two works that could barely be more different. In his stirring cantata »Dona Nobis Pacem«, a commissioned work for the Huddersfield Choral Society, the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams thematises the difficult situation in Europe in 1936. As he was writing the work, the composer battled self-doubt and feelings of political disillusion, which manifest in his music like a grave warning. In contrast, Johannes Brahms in his choral cantata »A German Requiem« uses Biblical passages from the Old and New Testament that serve as solace for those in mourning. The work explores the theme of salvation from suffering and the comfort souls find in God. Together, the two pieces combine to create a concert full of deep and intense musical experiences.