Over the last three days I have had one of the most thrilling and challenging experiences in the many years that I have enjoyed singing with choirs.
The Central Oregon Mastersingers, along with the Cascade Choral and the Central Oregon Symphony performed Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem (German Requiem) in German. There where 85 members in the orchestra along with a chorus of 104 voices. What a glorious sound!
The preparation for the performance was extensive, 7 rehearsals of the choir members and 4 rehearsals of the choir and orchestra - 33 hours in all!
Brahms began this work in 1864 after the death of his mother and unlike the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, written in Latin, the Libretto was written in German using text from the German Luther Bible. Also, unlike the Roman Catholic Requiem which focuses on prayers for the dead, the Brahms' work focuses on God as a figure of comfort.
Anyway, I don't have a recording of our performance but there are many on utube - give this one a listen, it's the second half of the second movement of the work (OH turn your volume down!):
Utube: Movement 2 part 2
