Brahms: Gesänge (5) for mixed choir, Op. 104

Johannes Brahms is one of the 19th century’s great composers of choral music.

This recording features some of his music for four and six-part choir, and includes the Liebeslieder Waltzes, the Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes, the Six Choral Pieces opus 93a, and the Five Choral Pieces opus 104. The singers are the Gächinger Kantorei and the conductor is the group’s highly regarded founder and musical director, Helmuth Rilling.

Gächinger Kantorei is an internationally known German mixed choir, founded by Helmuth Rilling in 1954 in Gächingen (part of St. Johann close to Reutlingen). It is dedicated mostly, but not exclusively, to sacred music. The ensemble operates in Stuttgart now and is therefore officially called the "Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart". The choir has up to 200 voices, and since 1965 it has performed music with orchestra as Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart.

Brahms’ 18 Liebeslieder Waltzes Op. 52 were published in 1869. They were premiered in Vienna the following year by Brahms and Clara Schumann, proving so popular that five years later Brahms published a second set of 14 songs under the title Neue Liebeslieder Op. 65. Both sets are set to words by the poet Georg Friedrich Daumer. The Six Choral pieces opus 93a incorporate texts by Rückert and Goethe, whilst the five opus 104 songs for Four to Six Voices are set to words by Rückert and Klaus Groth.

1CD+DVD

This charming disc presents a comprehensive selection of Brahms’s secular choral music. Through his professional activities, Brahms had a continuous interest in producing music for choirs, as well as profound insight into their capabilities. His impressive output of a cappella sacred choruses and motets makes learned and creative reference to such Baroque masters as Gabrieli, Schütz and Bach. Yet Brahms was equally adept in the traditions of the unaccompanied Romantic choral song, the Chorlied, following the lead of Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann, and adapting the form to his own characteristic ends. He also wrote a large number of vocal duets and quartets with piano accompaniment, including the popular Zigeunerlieder, which are testimony to his extraordinary fascination for gypsy music and its fertilizing effect on his style.

Selections from these secular forms are performed by the professional chamber choir Consortium, conducted by Andrew-John Smith, who will be familiar to Hyperion listeners from his acclaimed recording of Saint-Säens’ organ works.

Having focused on music from their home country before, the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir here present a German programme, featuring two of the most influential composers in 19th-century choral music: Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert.

It includes both sacred and secular music, scored for male, female and mixed choir a cappella and accompanied, starting with a selection from Brahms’s deservedly popular Zigeunerlieder for mixed choir and piano. A contrast to these settings of Hungarian folk songs is provided by the autumnal Five Songs for mixed choir a cappella – a collection of poems dealing with the transience of youth, love and life. The motet Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Mühseligen, shows Bach’s influence on the composer.

Schubert is represented with a setting of Psalm 23 for women’s choir and piano and Der Gesang der Geister über den Wassern.