A German Requiem with BBC NOW

The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales are joined by conductor Thomas Zehetmair to perform Brahms's German Requiem, with Elizabeth Watts and Andrew Foster-Williams as soloists. In the first half, Zehetmair conducts Mozart's 40th Symphony.

Presented by Verity Sharp and recorded in BBC Hoddinott Hall on the 26th of March.

Mozart: Symphony No 40 in G minor, K 550

Interval

Brahms: A German Requiem, Op 45

Elizabeth Watts (soprano)
Andrew Foster-Williams (bass)
BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales
Thomas Zehetmair (conductor)

Brahms was moved to write a requiem following the death of his mother, but rather than following the route of the Latin mass, he instead chose a much more humanist path. He selected verses from the German Bible and placed the focus of the work on the living that mourn, rather than the eternal rest of those that have died; while he called it a German requiem, it was meant for the whole of humankind. This towering work is paired in the first half of the concert with Mozart's penultimate symphony, his 40th. The Symphony was hugely influential on the development of the coming Romantic movement and remains one of his most popular to this day. Making his conducting debut with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales for this concert is Thomas Zehetmair, who is fittingly an alumnus of the Salzburg Mozarteum,

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