Post by erik on Feb 19, 2022 12:50:48 GMT -5
One of Johannes Brahms' best known contributions to the world of choral music is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Brahms: ALTO RHAPSODY (FOR ALTO, MALE CHORUS, AND ORCHESTRA), OP. 53
Even during those years when Johannes Brahms was trying to find a way of composing symphonies at a time when the shadow of Beethoven still lingered, he was furthering himself in another discipline that Beethoven had been able to master with a certain amount of success, and that was in the field of choral music. Such efforts had begun in 1863 with the cantata “Rinaldo” and climaxed (but did not conclude) with the famous German Requiem in 1868. But one of the composer’s best known and most popular works in this arena was the one known as the Alto Rhapsody. Begun during a stay with friends in Bonn in 1868, the Alto Rhapsody took from its inspiration a setting by Johann Friedrich Reichardt of Goethe’s ode “Harzreise Im Winter” (which the legendary German poet had written during a journey in the Harz mountains during the winter of 1777). Among the most poignant of Brahms’ numerous contributions to the choral field, the work was premiered in 1869 by Amalie Weiss, a contralto singer who was married to Brahms’ good friend and violinist Joseph Joachim. Scored for contralto voice, male chorus, and a moderate-sized orchestra, the Alto Rhapsody became a huge favorite among vocalists, choirs, and orchestras throughout the world during Brahms’ lifetime, and remains so to this very day.
Alto: DUNJA VEJZOVIC
Men of the Houston Symphony Chorus
Houston Symphony Orchestra/CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH (Virgin/Erato)
Included (2-CD set):
SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN F MAJOR, OP. 90
SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN E MINOR, OP. 98
TRAGIC OVERTURE, OP. 81
Brahms: ALTO RHAPSODY (FOR ALTO, MALE CHORUS, AND ORCHESTRA), OP. 53
Even during those years when Johannes Brahms was trying to find a way of composing symphonies at a time when the shadow of Beethoven still lingered, he was furthering himself in another discipline that Beethoven had been able to master with a certain amount of success, and that was in the field of choral music. Such efforts had begun in 1863 with the cantata “Rinaldo” and climaxed (but did not conclude) with the famous German Requiem in 1868. But one of the composer’s best known and most popular works in this arena was the one known as the Alto Rhapsody. Begun during a stay with friends in Bonn in 1868, the Alto Rhapsody took from its inspiration a setting by Johann Friedrich Reichardt of Goethe’s ode “Harzreise Im Winter” (which the legendary German poet had written during a journey in the Harz mountains during the winter of 1777). Among the most poignant of Brahms’ numerous contributions to the choral field, the work was premiered in 1869 by Amalie Weiss, a contralto singer who was married to Brahms’ good friend and violinist Joseph Joachim. Scored for contralto voice, male chorus, and a moderate-sized orchestra, the Alto Rhapsody became a huge favorite among vocalists, choirs, and orchestras throughout the world during Brahms’ lifetime, and remains so to this very day.
Alto: DUNJA VEJZOVIC
Men of the Houston Symphony Chorus
Houston Symphony Orchestra/CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH (Virgin/Erato)
Included (2-CD set):
SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN F MAJOR, OP. 90
SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN E MINOR, OP. 98
TRAGIC OVERTURE, OP. 81