Washington Master Chorale · 2026–27 Season
Brahms: A German Requiem
A requiem for the living, as intimately as London first heard it.
About the Concert
The first time London heard A German Requiem, it was in someone’s living room.
Not a concert hall. The drawing room of Sir Henry Thompson, in 1871, with Lady Thompson and Cipriani Potter side by side at a single piano, four hands, and however many guests the room would hold. Brahms made that arrangement himself. It is the version we are performing.
He had already done something unusual with the piece. He set aside the Latin mass for the dead, with its day of wrath and its judgment, and chose his own words instead. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. How lovely is thy dwelling place. Ye now are sorrowful; I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice. He was not writing for the dead at all. He was writing for everyone still here.
What the four-hands version gives back is nearness. With no orchestra standing between the words and the room, the consolation arrives at human scale, sung to you rather than performed in front of you. Grief is the one experience none of us is excused from, and for a little over an hour, Brahms answers it, patiently, and to every person present.
Come and sit close.
Program Highlights
- Johannes Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem The 1871 “London Version” for mixed chorus and piano four-hands
Featured Artists
Collin Power · soloist
Angeli Ferrette · soloist