Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45: IV. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen
Johannes Brahms
Recording
Collegium Vocale Gent, La Chapelle Royale, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Philippe Herreweghe
- Album
- Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45
- Year
- 1996
- Length
- Period
- Romantic
- Listen
Painting
Pieter Jansz. Saenredam
Interior of the Sint-Pieterskerk, 's-Hertogenbosch, 1632
The piece
The fourth of the Requiem's seven movements sets verses 1, 2 and 4 of Psalm 84 ("How lovely are thy dwellings, O Lord of hosts") for chorus and orchestra in E-flat major and triple time. Brahms chose the texts himself from Luther's Bible, and the complete Requiem was first heard in Leipzig in 1869.
The recording
Herreweghe recorded the work in 1996 with the period instruments of the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, his two choirs, and Christiane Oelze and Gerald Finley as soloists. BBC Music Magazine's review found the combined choirs "finely schooled and immaculately balanced".
Other recordings
John Eliot Gardiner's recording with the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (Philips, 1990) is also on period instruments; Otto Klemperer's 1961 EMI recording with the Philharmonia is a modern-instrument reference.