Johannes Brahms

The San Francisco Bach Choir, under the direction of David Babbitt, will present Johannes Brahms’ soaring choral masterpiece, A German Requiem. The Requiem, a work identified with the Romantic performance practices of the nineteenth century, was strongly influenced by Brahms’ great interest in the Renaissance and Baroque polyphony of his German musical forebears—especially the work of Schütz, Bach and Handel.

With an ear tuned to the sonorities of the 17th century Kapellmeisters of his heritage, and in a style comprising all the typical Baroque devices, including word-painting, the expressive use of dissonance, and speech and dance-derived rhythms, Brahms created in the Requiem a moving and deeply personal expression of humanist spirituality grounded in modern existence.

From the early-music perspective of its core repertoire of North German Baroque composers, the San Francisco Bach Choir, joined by the SFBC Orchestra and soloists Twyla Whittaker and Leroy Kromm, will explore the artistic roots and celebrate the rugged vitality that informed and shaped this, one of the greatest works of choral music.