Eun Sun Kim, Photo by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Johannes Brahms composed (better yet, assembled) his Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, over more than a decade, eventually coming up with seven soothing movements, each more sonically gorgeous than the next. It all begins and ends with consolation for the living after some unfortunate loss. Therefore, Brahms made a universal masterpiece with this, the biggest work he’d ever compose. It’s also as emotional, indeed Romantic, a work as the more ordinarily somewhat restrained composer would ever write.
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed this great work with enormous gravitas and precision under the skillful baton of guest conductor Eun Sun Kim. Kim is making a mark worldwide as an opera conductor (she was recently named Houston Grand Opera’s principal guest conductor—the first person to occupy such a position in 25 years). Her opera-conducting credentials certainly worked for the powerful German Requiem. The Chorus sang with great meticulousness, thrillingly so in work’s louder, more charged moments and tenderly so in its many serene ones. Vocal soloists Tara Erraught (soprano) and Stephen Powell (baritone) were in excellent voice, providing tender, personal moments to their parts.
I took issue with an assertion in the playbill that called Brahms a Christian. Yes, he used the bible for his texts but did so only because he thought his audience would most be able to identify with words they were already presumably somewhat familiar with. There is no mention of Jesus, sin, “judgment day,” etc. in his Requiem. Indeed, Brahms had to be arm-twisted into not calling it the “Human Requiem.” Yes, he was a baptized and confirmed Lutheran but throughout his life was indifferent to organized religion and never attended services. For him, the bible, as he wrote to Clara Schumann, “is a repository of experiences [instead of] a definition of Christian creed.”
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The concert began with a far less-familiar work: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D Major, Op. 283, by Brahms’ friend Carl Reinecke (Brahms and Reinecke were both born in Hamburg, Germany, just nine years apart). An additional fascinating connection between the two is that Reinecke, as conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted the world premiere of the complete, seven-movement Brahms Requiem.
Though composed in 1908, Reinecke’s Flute Concerto’s universally lovely, unfussy music evokes an earlier era; it fits far more comfortably within the world of Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn than composers cutting a new musical path in the early 20th century. The soloist for the concerto was Sonora Slocum, principal flute of the MSO. She played superbly, bringing warmth, a clear tone and joy to this all-too-rarely heard piece. Slocum further charmed the audience with a brief flute-solo encore.
