St Stephen’s Choir To Present Brahms’ German Requiem This Weekend

RIDGEFIELD — The St Stephen’s Choir presents Johannes Brahms’ beloved A German Requiem on May 2 as the concluding concert of this year’s Sunday Afternoon Concert Series at St. Stephen’s Church, 351 Main Street (Route 35) in Ridgefield. The performance will begin at 4 pm.

Dr Kristin Sponheim, minister of music at St Stephen’s, will conduct the 55-voice choir, orchestra and two soloists – soprano Nora Barton and baritone Thomas Carr.

For this performance trumpeter Doug Myers, who has made several appearances at the Sunday Afternoon Concert Series, has adapted a special score of German Requiem for 20-piece orchestra, which will consist of strings, organ, timpani, plus flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horns and trumpets.

The German Requiem has neither the text nor structure of the traditional Christian Mass. Brahms used humanist text from the Bible – the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha – with a universal quality and appeal that cross religious boundaries. He intermingles text from 11 books, including Psalms, Isaiah, Corinthians and two Gospels.

The German Requiem opens with a Beatitude from the Gospel of Matthew, “Blessed are those who mourn,” and ends in the seventh movement with “Blessed are the dead” from Revelation.

Throughout, elements of the work display a wide range of emotion, from lush romantic orchestral melodies, the choir singing in powerful unison and then in quiet, lyrical harmony, to a comforting soprano solo, and a baritone asking “Death, where is your sting?” Solos in The German Requiem are integrated with the choir, as if the choir and soloists are commenting on what each is singing.

A donation of $10 is suggested. Call the church office at 203-438-3789 for additional information.