Brahms's Requiem sets verses from the Bible and the Apocrypha in Martin Luther's German, deliberately departing from the traditional Latin liturgy. The title, Ein Deutsches Requiem, underlines that choice. Here was a work concerned not with redemption but with a spirituality that expressed universal truths. Its message was for the whole of humanity and, later, defending the absence of any reference to Christ, the agnostic Brahms went so far as to say that he should perhaps have called it a "human" rather than a German requiem.
While the piece deals with elevated spiritual and philosophical ideas, its personal testament is the key to communicating simply and directly to the listener. All the more disappointing, then, that in Richard Hickox's performance with the BBC National Chorus of Wales and the Bristol Choral Society, there should have been little engagement with the essential nature of the music. Hickox is a man to galvanise a chorus, but, in such a profoundly contemplative work, that is hardly the task. Individual sections seemed less than confident: the tenors and the basses lacked lyrical line and the sopranos sounded mostly ordinary (and occasionally flat) rather than ethereal and beatific.
Brahms's detractors criticise the stodgy textures; Hickox adopted speeds that made them so, and thus the grace that characterises the second movement entirely eluded him. Similarly, How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings, the centre of the arch of seven movements, passed without achieving any feeling of joy. Brahms added the fifth movement last, perceiving the need for brightness and hope; Susan Gritton's radiantly sung solo was indeed the redeeming feature on this occasion.
Since it was Lutheran rather than Catholic audiences who warmed to Brahms's choral work, there were historical points to be made in preceding it with Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony, which commemorated the 1530 Augsberg convention, a defining moment for the Lutheran church. Of musical points, most notable was the singing tone of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales strings in the Andante - but, overall, this was an underwhelming evening.
