Not the musical kind (though there are quite a few of those involved), but the length of time since I last performed Brahms’ German Requiem, which I am doing with the Chantry Singers this term. The only other time I performed this work was when I was a student and just starting out as a choral singer. Since then I’ve only performed a couple of isolated movements as anthems. And I’ve never done any of it in German.
I’ve never before performed a work after such a long interval (it will be exceeded if I ever do the St. Matthew Passion). Somewhat to my surprise, many in the choir have not done it at all, so I’m not surrounded by people who know it any better. I find that my memory of it is very patchy – I can have no memory of a particular passage and then the next phrase comes back with total recall! This can have the curious result that I know the harder passages of the work better, presumably because I put more effort into learning them all those years ago. I suspect that when I first sang it I didn’t learn the notes all that thoroughly; I was less disciplined about this in those days, and also less confident and more likely to rely on others for leads. Of course I can supplement my limited memory with recollection of the work from having heard it on broadcasts or recordings.
I think this is my all time favorite choral work.
My parish choir performed it last year, combined with another parish choir and full orchestra. That was my first time to ever sing it, but I’ve always enjoyed hearing it performed (except once when I heard a local symphonic choir sing it and it sounded mushy and sloppy).
Years ago, my partner sang it in a festival choir where the conductor talked about the piece, using the choir and orchestra to illustrate his points. Then he conducted the entire piece in entirety. I was very happy to have a chance to hear this music sung twice in one night, or at least parts of it.