BBC Philharmonic: Brahms Requiem

Fearing death, reaffirming life

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Anja Bihlmaier conductor
Julia Grüter soprano
Joshua Hopkins baritone
Audi Young Persons’ Choral Academy

Lili Boulanger Psalm 24
Johannes Brahms A German Requiem

Brahms and Boulanger contemplate death and the divine, reaching contrary conclusions.

Lili Boulanger’s short life was filled with musical colour and critical acclaim, becoming the first woman to win Paris’s storied Prix de Rome prize.

Her choral setting of Psalm 24 – written in France and Rome during the height of World War II – is a thunderous exultation of the Holy Word. This performance is a rare opportunity to hear the loudest, noblest music Boulanger ever wrote.

Boulanger was a fervent, if open-minded, Catholic. Johannes Brahms, while raised a Protestant, used his German Requiem to explore humanist thoughts around mourning. His requiem is a monument to the living who mourn the dead, with themes that echo through the ages: the fragility of life; the flitting between moments of anxiety and acceptance; and the relief of consolation when mourning. Through moments of sorrow, Brahms finds serenity.