Since its first complete performance in 1868 in the Cathedral of Bremen Brahms's Ein deutsches
Requiem is without question one of the key works in the history of the choral canon. The
reputation of the work is based not only on its unusually concentrated musical structure but
also on the original conception of the text: Brahms assembled important passages from both the
Old and New Testaments in Luther's translation so that thoughts on sorrow and consolation would
clearly refer to one another. In contrast to many other choral works of the 19th century Brahms
places the choir the voice of the community in the centre of this interdenominational
celebration of the dead.
