Brahms: Mass; Motets (2014)

This release on the Dutch audiophile Channel Classics label offers some real Brahms rarities: a rare thing in a marketplace where this composer's work has been pretty exhaustively explored. The Swedish Radio Choir under Peter Dijkstra does not quite make a case for any of these works as counterparts to Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, but the music is interesting enough and in several cases unlike anything else Brahms ever wrote. Mostly short, these a cappella works reflect more than almost any others by Brahms his engagement ... Read More

This release on the Dutch audiophile Channel Classics label offers some real Brahms rarities: a rare thing in a marketplace where this composer's work has been pretty exhaustively explored. The Swedish Radio Choir under Peter Dijkstra does not quite make a case for any of these works as counterparts to Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, but the music is interesting enough and in several cases unlike anything else Brahms ever wrote. Mostly short, these a cappella works reflect more than almost any others by Brahms his engagement with early music: not only Bach, but Heinrich Schütz, Giovanni Gabrieli, and even Palestrina in the fragmentary Missa Canonica (tracks 6-8), which did not have its premiere until 1983. The Fest-und Gedenksprüche (say that fast five times), Op. 109, are responsorial structures intended for outdoor performance; other works are simple and declamatory in the manner of a chorale, but characteristic of Brahms' harmonic world. The late Three Motets, Op. 110, have the economy of the... Read Less