Brahms Requiem

The Bach in Baltimore Choir and Orchestra is pleased to present Brahms German Requiem, a grand and moving work for chorus, orchestra, soprano soloist, and baritone soloist. It is unique in music history. Unlike other Requiems, Brahms German Requiem is not a liturgical piece at all. It forgoes the use of both the Roman Catholic burial liturgy as well as the Protestant liturgy as found in the Lutheran lectionary. Instead, Brahms chose 15 citations from 11 books in the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha. The texts that Brahms chose are full of imagery and fit together in an overarching architectural plan.
Brahms was asked to include more explicitly religious references to this composition, but he wrote that he could not. “I confess that I would gladly omit even the word German and instead use Human.” This was his ultimate goal, to create a universal Requiem for all who experience it.
We offer this “Human Requiem” in the loving memory of all the loved ones lost during the pandemic. Sung in English. Additionally, we will perform Sprenkle’s Go Down Death, dedicated to Maestro Dimmock in memory of his mother.