Brahms: An English Requiem

Delphian

It won’t come as a surprise to Brahms aficionados that he wrote a four-hand piano accompaniment to support smaller scale performances of his famous “German Requiem” -– he did so for many of his choral pieces – though it might surprise them to know that the work was occasionally referred to in Victorian England as “An English Requiem”, given it was most often sung then in the vernacular. Both issues are explored in this intriguing recording by the Choir of King’s College London, under its director Joseph Fort, and with the pianists James Baillieu and Richard Uttley. The piano duo version heard here is edited from the original to facilitate a fuller sounding performance and it certainly puts a strangely intimate spin on the piece, emphasised by the small, youthful choral forces and the consequent clarity of the textures. Most of it works convincingly, save the odd moment where one yearns for the big pungent thrill.