By Janos Gereben

San Francisco Classical Voice, December 17, 2002

Johannes Brahms was a young twenty-something when he began writing what became his Opus 45, but by the time it was first performed, in 1867, he turned 34. By then, and especially later, he was unhappy with the name that had already stuck: A German Requiem. 

It is certainly not an "ethnic" work nor a particularly Christian one (Christ is not mentioned in the text, and both Old and New Testament passages are used), but rather a deeply spiritual message to and about the mourners, not about souls of the dead navigating through hellfire and damnation. Brahms suggested "A Human Requiem," but that didn't fly. I have no high hopes for the substitution suggested here, inspired by the Santa Rosa Symphony's performance on Sunday, that it be called "A Community Requiem," although the facts are on my side. 

Once again, Santa Rosa Symphony music director Jeffrey Kahane managed to involve town and country, professional and amateur singers, schools and community groups in a lengthy development process he had also applied to the Britten War Requiem, Tippett's A Child of Our Time and other large-scale projects. The chorus for the Brahms, for example, consisted of fifty high school students, 75 singers chosen from community choruses, and fifty members of the Sonoma County Bach Choir. 

Now "community involvement," of course, is a Good Thing, heaven knows. The problem, again as a matter of course, is that "talented amateurs" are neither expected nor are likely to deliver a professional performance. Except that they did. 

A choral triumph 

Prepared by the newly-appointed Santa Rosa Symphony choral director Robert Worth, conducted by Kahane and supported by a flawless orchestra, the chorus sang gloriously, with a fair diction, great balance, and a convincing sense of the music. 

Kahane, a brilliant pianist who has become a formidable conductor, shaped the performance masterfully. He served the structure faithfully, using the opening "Selig sind, die da Leid tragen" ("Blessed are they that mourn") and the closing "Selig sind die Toten" ("Blessed are the dead") as repetition, reinforcement, question-and-answer, enfolding everything in between. For some seventy minutes, the Requiem built steadily, comprehensively, with a deep understanding of its humane, caring message. 

Led by associate concertmaster Jeanelle Meyer, the orchestra played superbly: strings perfectly together, woodwinds free and easy, the brass blending in without a hitch. Never heard a better performance from the Santa Rosa Symphony. And the setting for that accomplishment is a truly hard-to-believe situation, something that exists only in the context of a suffering-heroic-underpaid-overworked regional orchestra: the Santa Rosans performed the Requiem four times within 60 hours ÷ at a 2 p.m. dress rehearsal Saturday, the premiere at 8 that evening, the Sunday matinee I attended, and then a final performance Monday night. Well, at least they could catch their breath during intermissions . . . except that there weren't any. 

Solid solo singing 

Karina Gauvin handled the soprano solo in "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit" well, although without much feeling or vocal distinction. Baritone Stephen Powell managed his two great solos better: "Herr, lehre doch mich" was solid and straightforward, and he brought appealing energy to the solo portions of "Denn wir haben hier keine bleibende Statt." 

Energy in general was the only problem in an otherwise stunning performance of big-league competence. All went well, but also in a measured-mannered way, which tended to distance the audience. Part of the problem may be in the work itself: a "just-good" performance makes it sound majestic and bloodless, "above it all," rather than involving or moving. 

There are few performances on record successfully mixing that over-all feel with inner tension and excitement. The major fault with the Kahane-Santa Rosa German Requiem is that it fell short of the Klemperer-New Philharmonia standard . . . a semi-jocular statement offered here as an antonym to "damning with faint praise." 

(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janos451@earthlink.net.) 

©2002 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved