The program notes I wrote for the February 28, 2026 performance of Schumann’s Overture, Scherzo, and Finale and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem are below. Tickets can be purchased here.
Schumann: Overture, Scherzo and Finale
Robert Schumann’s Overture, Scherzo, and Finale was composed in 1841 and heavily revised in 1845 after a lukewarm reception at its premiere. Eighteen forty one was one of the few happy years in Schumann’s troubled life. His First Symphony (The Spring Symphony) had been greeted with great acclaim at its premiere in March. He had recently married Clara Wieck after a protracted battle with her father, Frederich, who vigorously opposed the marriage. As a result, Clara had to wait until she was legally of age, and thus no longer under her father’s guardianship, to marry Robert.
Frederich is usually portrayed as the bad guy in this dispute. Still, it’s easy to understand why he would oppose the liaison between his brilliant daughter (a world-class pianist) and the mentally unstable genius. Most fathers in a similar position would likely do the same and be just as successful.
Schumann noted he composed the work in a “truly merry mood.” Often called a symphony without a slow movement, this charming piece (even if a slow movement had been added) lacks the gravitas associated with the composer’s four numbered symphonies. He initially referred to the work as a ‘Suite’ or “Sinfonietta’, implying a looser collection of movements rather than the four-movement structure of a traditional symphony. He finally decided on the purely descriptive title, which rather prosaically names the celebratory and jovial composition.
The overture has a somber start which rapidly morphs into a lively allegro that shows the influence of Felix Mendelssohn, Schumman’s close friend. His influence is also found in the other movements, which have repeated rhythms. The vigorous finale ends the genial and lightly orchestrated piece. It deserves more than an occasional inclusion on concert programs.
Brahms: A German Requiem
Eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil made mankind the only creatures in God’s universe aware of their mortality. This burden has weighed down humanity to the farthest reaches of our existence. The certainty of our end expresses itself in religion, philosophy, literature, art, and music. It animates every human interaction from war to restraint.
Death pervades classical music like a mournful messenger of fate. Examples are too numerous to mention in any depth; a few, such as Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, and Mahler’s 9th Symphony are prime examples. But there is one musical form that is exclusively about death – the Requiem. There are thousands of musical settings of the Catholic Mass for the Dead. They often add or subtract from the liturgical text of the Mass. The best known of these are by Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, and Fauré. More about Fauré below.
Johannes Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) occupies a unique position in the composer’s output and in the history of the nineteenth-century choral tradition. The German in the title refers to the German language, not the nation. The text is taken from Luther’s translation of the Bible and the Apocrypha into German. A minor point, the d in Ein deutsches Requiem is not capitalized because adjectives are generally not capitalized in German, even when they are part of a title or refer to a nationality. Brahms did not mean a requiem for Germany, nor did he intend the work to serve a liturgical function. The composer said he would gladly omit German and call the piece A Human Requiem.
Brahms was very close to Robert Schumann, who was like a father to the younger composer. He was greatly affected by Schumann’s suicide attempt in 1854 and his death two years later in a mental institution. Brahms had been contemplating a large-scale choral work dealing with death and consolation as early as 1854. His mother’s death in 1865 provided the impetus for the work’s completion, rather than its conception, which owed much to Schumann’s desperate condition.
Brahms was explicit that the work was not confessional in the traditional sense. The text avoids explicit reference to Christ’s redemption or resurrection; instead, it focuses on human suffering, transience, and consolation. This choice places the work at a remove from orthodox Christian doctrine and aligns it more closely with a broadly humanistic, even post-Enlightenment worldview. It is entirely different from the traditional musical settings of the Latin Mass for the Dead. It is about peace and acceptance rather than sin and salvation.
There is no librettist for the work. Brahms himself selected and ordered biblical passages, primarily from Psalms, Isaiah, Ecclesiastes, the Gospels, and the Pauline Epistles. This allowed him to construct a carefully balanced theological and emotional arc.
Brahms composed the requiem between 1865 and 1868. The Mass was performed in an incomplete version in 1867 in Vienna. It was poorly received due to inadequate rehearsal and audience expectation of a liturgical Mass. A Good Friday performance in Bremen Cathedral on April 10, 1868, where six movements were performed, and the premiere of the complete seven-movement version in Leipzig on February 18, 1869, established Brahms as the leading German composer of sacred choral music of his generation and marked his full artistic maturity.
The added movement, ‘Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit’ (Now ye have sorrow) for solo soprano, is thought to be a remembrance of Brahms’ deceased mother, Christiane. It is number V in the order specified by Brahms.
The longest of all Brahms’ compositions, the work is symmetrically arranged in seven movements:
I. Selig sind, die da Leid tragen (Blessed are they that mourn): Begins with the Beatitudes (“Blessed are they that mourn”). Scored without violins to create a dark, somber texture.
II. Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras (For all flesh is as grass): A powerful funeral march contrasting the transience of life with the endurance of God’s word.
III. Herr, lehre doch mich (Lord, make me to know mine end): Features a baritone soloist reflecting on human mortality, concluding with a massive fugue.
IV. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (How lovely is Thy dwelling place): The work’s central and most famous movement, expressing a lyrical longing for peace.
V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit (Ye now are sorrowful): The soprano solo added later, specifically to provide motherly comfort.
VI. Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt (For here have we no continuing city): A dramatic baritone solo depicting the “last trumpet” and the victory over death.
VII. Selig sind die Toten (Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord): Echoes the first movement’s theme of “blessedness,” bringing the work to a serene, cyclical conclusion.
Movements I and VII form a frame focused on beatitude and consolation. Both begin with the word “Selig” (Blessed) and share similar melodic material. Movement VII ends with the same musical motifs and harp-enriched orchestration as Movement I.
Movements II and VI confront mortality and transience. Movement II is the most dramatically contrasted and is often described as a funeral march with a progression from mortal transience to eschatological hope. The closing section culminates in a radiant fugue, one of Brahms’s first major demonstrations of choral contrapuntal mastery. Movement VI is the largest and most complex movement, combining elements of aria, chorus, recitative, and fugue. It begins with the baritone articulating humanity’s homelessness in the world. The movement ends in a monumental double fugue, combining learned counterpoint with overwhelming sonic power. This is the closest Brahms comes to traditional judgment imagery, yet even here the emphasis is on divine worthiness rather than human fear.
Movements III and V both feature soloists (baritone and soprano, respectively) integrated into the choral texture. Movement III is tripartite, with a reflective solo section, a choral meditation, and a consoling conclusion. Movement V is intimate and lyrical, functioning almost as a song within the larger structure. The soprano solo unfolds in long, arching phrases, supported by gentle orchestral textures. This is the most personal movement in the Requiem and is often understood as Brahms’s response to his mother’s death.
Movement IV stands at the center of the Requiem as a vision of peace and dwelling. It is the lyrical keystone of the piece, offering a gentle meditation on heaven.
Ein deutsches Requiem is characterized by its deep humanism and its pivotal role in establishing Brahms as a major figure in 19th-century music. It is a consolation for the living rather than a prayer for the dead. Unlike traditional Latin Requiems that center on divine judgment and the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), Brahms’ work focuses on the human experience of grief and spiritual healing. It omits specific Christian dogmas, such as the name of Jesus or references to the redeeming sacrifice of Christ, to give the work a broader ecumenical and humanistic appeal.
Though Brahms’ career coincided with the height of musical romanticism, he was at heart a classical composer who used modern forms within that context. The use of contrapuntal techniques in the Mass comes from his attachment to the classical tradition. His name and music were at the heart of the great debate over the worth of Wagner’s revolutionary approach to music and art. Like Berlioz, he was concerned with the future of music rather than the music of the future.
By using the German language and non-liturgical texts, Brahms redefined the “Requiem” as a concert-hall genre rather than strictly a church service, influencing later composers like Mahler and Fauré to seek more personal, less dogmatic expressions of mortality. The work continues to be programmed worldwide as a standard for reflection and remembrance, valued for its ability to provide solace during times of collective or personal loss.
Fauré’s Requiem uses the traditional Catholic text, omitting the Dies Irae. It too is in seven movements and is scored for soprano, baritone, mixed choir, orchestra, and organ. Fauré wrote of the work, “Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest.” The influence of Brahms’ earlier Mass on Fauré is palpable.
Due to its contemplative and introspective nature, Brahms’ Requiem, though often played, will never be as popular as Verdi’s intensely dramatic and melodically inspired Mass, which the LSO will perform next year. The LSO’s audience will thus have the unique opportunity to hear these two masterpieces performed in successive seasons. They will be able to realize how two of music’s giants approached the same subject in diametrically opposite ways.
