Musicians Shine In Tribute To Brahms
Spokane Symphony Orchestra and Chorale Opera House, Friday night
Conductor Fabio Mechetti honored the centennial of Johannes Brahms’ death with an all-Brahms program featuring a performance of the composer’s “Ein deutsches Requiem” (“A German Requiem”) on Friday at the Opera House - a performance of distinction and one having distinctive qualities.
Brahms’ “Requiem” is like none of the famous musical settings of the Roman Catholic requiem Mass. And Mechetti never allowed us to forget it. The words Brahms chose from the Bible are of quiet comfort and powerful reassurance. Brahms rejected the threats of righteous judgment and damnation in the medieval Latin requiem - those very qualities that provide high drama to the requiems of Mozart, Verdi and Berlioz.
The evening’s soloists, soprano Julie Newell and baritone Kevin McMillan, were splendid. Newell made “Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit” float effortlessly over its orchestral and choral cushion. McMillan has a powerful baritone capable of tender lyricism and rhetorical thunder. This baritone’s incisive German diction was as impressive as his vocal quality; both attributes were a pleasure to hear.
While the soloists’ work is important to any effective performance of “Ein deutsches Requiem,” the real vocal burden is on the choir. The Spokane Symphony Chorale, trained for this concert by guest director Paul Klemme, sounded particularly fine Friday. The tone had beauty and substance whether in the quiet of “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen” or in the immense power required by “Denn alles Fleischist wie Gras.” Word clarity, however, was a problem from where I sat.
The range of orchestral sonorities Brahms brings to the “Requiem” is quite astonishing. Brahms is not noted as an orchestral colorist. Who, though, but Brahms would have thought of accompanying the opening movement with an orchestra without violins? The dark sonority gives special pathos to the text, “Blessed are they that mourn,” a poignancy intensified by a recurring oboe solo. Or who else would, ever so subtly, evoke the mention of “the morning and afternoon rain” by adding flute and harp?
Examples of such ingenuity could be multiplied. Such compositional skill was supported by sensitive conducting and admirable orchestral playing. But there were some disorderly attacks on Brahms’ hammer-stroke chords and moments of poor intonation among woodwinds and brass on sustained chords.
Mechetti began the concert with an account of Brahms’ “Tragic Overture” that never slighted the somber quality of this music. But he gave the overture arrhythmic drive that showed Brahms’ admiration for Mendelssohn, something that never had struck me before. The overture was the perfect introduction to the serious mood of the “Requiem” and to the symphony’s noble tribute to Brahms.
, DataTimes