Orchestra Brings Brahms To Life

Author: Jasmin Johnson

Despite it being a squally Saturday, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) played to a very appreciative audience at the Flynn Center in Burlington, Vt. The sold-out concert was a special celebration to commemorate Robert de Cormier's 80th birthday.

Cormier is the director of the VSO Chorus, which he founded in 1993. He conducted the orchestra as it performed an indisputably significant piece — Johannes Brahms' "Ein deutsches Requiem" ("A German Requiem"), Op. 4. The 57-member strong orchestra was accompanied by a 90-member chorus, which included Middlebury College's Cook Commons Coordinator Amy Knapp, Director of the Chamber Singers Jeff Rehbach, Events and Residency Manager of the Center for the Arts Alison Coyne and Siddartha Rao '04.

The attempted suicide and death of Brahm's esteemed teacher Robert Schumann, the death of his mother and perhaps even the wars waged for German unification moved Brahms to write this piece.

Brahms himself chose the lyrics from passages in the Bible and always insisted that it was a requiem for all of humanity. Interestingly, Brahms also maintained that this work was not to be viewed as a bereavement piece. On the contrary, the movements were ordered so that the focal point was a message of hope in the acceptance of the brevity of life.

Almost in a parallel dedication, Cormier said Brahms' sacred requiem would be played in fond memory of his friend, David Wilson, who had recently passed on without having the chance to play the piece.

The first movement "Selig sind, die da leid tragen" ("Blessed are those who bear sorrow, for they shall be comforted") began on a low, dim tone, like the soft sadness one feels at a place of mourning. Initial portions of the movement were played by the deep sounds of the violas, cellos and bass. The soothing entry of the chorus possessed the quality of distance, like voices from the past, and made for a nice mélange.

The second movement "Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras" ("For all flesh is as grass") was more emphatic and at times almost pounding and haunting. This was probably the culminating movement, and the sounds of the chorus and orchestra created a heavy, march-like theme.

While the general mood seemed to be a dark one, with the key players being the lower scale instruments, high voices were periodically interspersed, which in contrast sounded angel-like. The flutists of the Orchestra made their brief parts beautiful, especially toward the buildup of the fugue at the end.

Cormier must be commended for his control of the piece. He kept the dialectic in control, without losing too much of the "Requiem"'s emotional intensity.

The third movement — "Herr, lehre doch mich" ("Lord teach me therefore that there must be an end for me") contained what Cormier had earlier called "the impossible fugue" that Brahms had been criticized for. The orchestra handled it capably; baritone Kevin Deas' splendid solo lent the movement even more potency.

"I think this piece is just so beautifully constructed," said Deas, a graduate of Juilliard who gained international fame for his role as Porgy in Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess." "When I was in Juilliard, all I wanted to sing was Brahms. He is good for the low voice."

Indeed, Deas shone with his pulsating vibrato. The second part of the series of movements also began to mirror the first.

"This is a very structurally unified piece, and if you look carefully at the complexity, you will note mirrors of the earlier movements. This is why Brahms was thought to be truly one of the greatest of his time, " said an announcer during the pre-concert discussion.

Lyrically however, the second part of the piece was reaching a spiritual denouement, firm in the hopeful conclusion that the "departed are resting, and one day too, when our work is done, we too will rest," according to the announcer. It was at this late point in the piece that the soprano soloist was presented. The 5th movement "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit" ("And ye now therefore have sorrow") was not a part of the original piece and many have surmised that it was added later in memory of Brahms' mother. The 7th and final movement was also stylistically remarkable, and ended with a grand sostenuto, and seemed to bring the piece full circle.

Both soloists had liquid smooth voices and effortlessly sang what were very difficult passages. The chorus was pleasing as well and put up a fine performance for most parts, though they got a little thin at certain fugal modulations. While the orchestra also gave a laudable performance, the real maestro was clearly Brahms — who managed to evoke so much through a simple spirituality embedded in an intense and lyrical composition.

This celebrated requiem, which was written over a period of five war-torn years, is superior in that it communicates the idea of mortality in a very poignant way, at least to these ears. One can suppose this is why the tragic sounds of Brahms have always been so powerful.