Blessed are those who mourn

"Blessings of the afflicted" – this is how Johannes Brahms himself described his "German Requiem," and truly: it is a work for the living, less a music of mourning than of consolation. With his Requiem, Brahms deliberately turns away completely from church conventions, allowing himself a very personal religious perspective: The selection of biblical passages, the use of German language, all of this underscores the composer's stated goal of placin...