I have sung Brahms’ German Requiem within the lifetime of this blog, but it was not long after I started it! Instead I’ve twice attended a series of rehearsals with Bristol Choral Society for performances I couldn’t take part in. So I really felt I was owed a chance to sing this in concert, and it came when I rejoined Bath Cantata Group for a performance in St Stephen’s Lansdown conducted by Neil Moore.
This was the version accompanied by piano duet, which Bristol Choral Society intended to do a couple of years ago, but didn’t because Colston Hall became available and we hired an orchestra. (Some years ago I was also supposed to be involved in a Bath Camerata Good Friday performance of this version, but wasn’t invited because of some admin hiccup. By the time this was realised, I’d missed too many rehearsals and I got a profuse apology.) Obviously it lacks the full weight, colour and volume of the orchestral version but it works well with a smaller choir and some details stand out more. It is also easier in some places to feel the pulse with a more percussive accompaniment.
Our soprano soloist was Julia O’Connor, familiar to anyone who regularly goes to Bath Opera productions; the baritone was Timothy Dickinson. The piano duet was played by Jacquelyn Bevan and Will Ashworth (the choir’s regular accompanist). I am full of admiration for the amount of concentration required to do it justice – greater than even the amount of stamina required for the choral parts (I regard this as the most demanding of the major choral works in this respect). As if that wasn’t enough, they opened the concert with Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor, a piece I used to play back in the day.
We had a sizeable audience. I’ve only sung rarely before in St Stephen’s, the last time being with A Handful of Singers (as they then were). It is a sympathetic acoustic although I missed a light whose bulb had gone out between midweek rehearsal and concert.