SCCS, directed by David Ballard, return to the Auden Theatre for the summer concert with soloists Rebecca Kaznowski and Dhilan Gnanadurai. Edward Elgar’s From the Bavarian Highlands was written in 1894 in homage to a memorable Bavarian holiday. The song lyrics were adapted to Elgar’s music by the composer’s wife Alice with words adapted from the Volkslieder and Schnadahüpfler imitating the spirit of the dances. Alice gave the songs sub-titles in recollection of favourite places visited during the holiday. It will be performed in its original arrangement for piano accompaniment. Elgar was greatly inspired by Johannes Brahms during his visits to Leipzig so it is very fitting that the programme includes his ever popular German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem) which will be performed with the original accompaniment for piano duet. Composed between 1865 and 1868 it comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work Brahms’s longest composition.
A German Requiem is sacred but non-liturgical, and unlike a long tradition of the Latin Requiem, A German Requiem, as its title states, is a Requiem in the German language. Although the Requiem Mass in the Roman Catholic liturgy begins with prayers for the dead (Grant them eternal rest, O Lord), A German Requiem focuses on the living, beginning with the text Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. from the Beatitudes. This theme—transition from anxiety to comfort—recurs throughout.