Cleveland Orchestra Chorus @ Severance Hall 10/15/09

No wonder avid choristers love to perform Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) of Johannes Brahms. They sing almost constantly throughout, giving life to some of the most gloriously uplifting music ever written. Add in two soloists—soprano and baritone—plus full orchestra, and you have approximately 70 minutes of music as close to heaven as earth-bound creatures may ever hear.

Soprano Nicole Cabell (who celebrated a birthday by singing with the orchestra) and baritone Russell Braun were joined by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus (prepared by its music director, Robert Porco) in this gorgeous memorial to the composer’s mother. Not being Catholic, Brahms wrote an untraditional Requiem, based on Biblical and Lutheran texts, meant to console and comfort mourners, rather than being a Mass for the Dead.

After a subdued opening, the choral voices rise like mist from the orchestral beginning, gradually increasing to a thunderous sound. The second movement was profoundly moving as Timpanist Paul Yancich provided an extraordinary heartbeat throughout the majestic march-like music. In the sixth movement, the organ played by Joella Jones accompanied the joined forces in a musical depiction of hell when the last trumpet should sound. In between, the soloists each had occasion to shine (which they did!) and the chorus demonstrated its vibrant technique

With a different (local) chorus, this work will be performed on the orchestra’s European tour.

Opening the program was Chor by Jörg Widmann, the newest of the Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellows, who is an active performer as well as composer. This piece does hark back to earlier times with a beautiful (although brief) chorale near the end. It begins with an offstage trumpet, and as the note morphs into other instruments and pitches, the strings demonstrate their incredibly soft playing. At times one can easily see the bows moving, but no sound is readily apparent. Amazing.

Eventually, after exploring different textures and sonorities, increases and decreases in volume, quarter-tones are added in producing an eerie sort of sound. The offstage trumpet is heard again, and as in the Brahms piece noted earlier, a cacophonous sustained sound emerges, overwhelming everything. It seemed for all the world like a plea by tormented souls being just a tad off-kilter.

But then, the sound dwindles away into nothingness again, just as it had begun.

The orchestra returns to Severance Hall on November 7 for the first concert of the new Celebrity Series, featuring film music of John Williams, conducted by Richard Kaufman. The next subscription concerts are November 12-14, with David Robertson conducting and Yefim Bronfman and the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2. For tickets or information, call the ticket office at 216.231.1111 or visit the web-site: http://www.clevelandorchestra.com

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz, who writes: My most recently published book is Ardenwycke Unveiled (e-book and trade paper). Cerridwen has another contemporary romance from me, But Not For Love, currently available only as an e-book, but perhaps will be in print next year. I hope to soon get around to completing some of the 30+ incomplete books in my computer!

By the way, Cerridwen has also accepted two of my short stories in their Scintillating Samples (complimentary reads) area: Song of the Swan and Unexpected Comfort. I love photography as well, as you can see here. Occasionally I teach writing workshops and sometimes do editing or ghostwriting on a free-lance basis. But over and above everything else, there've always been the words and the music. I can't imagine my life without them.