{"id":6654,"date":"2011-06-26T23:24:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T06:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=6654"},"modified":"2013-02-07T20:51:01","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T04:51:01","slug":"a-kinder-gentler-requiem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/06\/26\/a-kinder-gentler-requiem\/","title":{"rendered":"a kinder, gentler requiem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"helmuth<\/a>
Helmuth Rilling conducts Brahms in Eugene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sunday afternoon was one of those rare times when I had a piece that I thought I knew well revealed to me in an entirely new, deeper, and more personal way. The piece was Brahms’ German Requiem<\/em>, and the person who gave me that view was conductor Helmuth Rilling.<\/p>\n

I’ve always loved Brahms’ Requiem. I love that he chose passages from the Bible that he felt were more appropriate for consoling the survivors than sending off the departed. I love that the first section has no violins, only the lower strings and the wind section. I love that he uses the noble sound of the trombone to great effect.<\/p>\n

Rilling obviously loves this piece very much, too. As he talked to the orchestra and chorus at the dress rehearsal, he gave some of his insights into the piece, including the rising harp line at the close of the requiem, which he saw as Brahms’ nod to the resurrection of Christ (in a religious work that never mentions Jesus) and the ascension of the soul of the recently departed.<\/p>\n

There was a valedictory feel to this performance – most likely it will be Rilling’s last performance of the Brahms with the Oregon Bach Festival, and he gave the performance his considerable all, and inspired some committed playing and singing from the assembled forces. It makes me anticipate the performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on July 9th and 10th (in Portland and Eugene, respectively) all the more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday afternoon was one of those rare times when I had a piece that I thought I knew well revealed to me in an entirely new, deeper, and more personal way. The piece was Brahms’ German Requiem, and the person who gave me that view was conductor Helmuth Rilling. I’ve always loved Brahms’ Requiem. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[138,2],"tags":[439,2721,2718,2337],"class_list":["post-6654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summer-festivals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-brahms","tag-german-requiem","tag-helmuth-rilling","tag-oregon-bach-festival"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1Jk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6644,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/06\/24\/bach-festival-musings\/","url_meta":{"origin":6654,"position":0},"title":"bach festival musings","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm just entering my first weekend of the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene, Oregon, and there's a lot going on at the southern end of the Willamette Valley. The OBF is starting its search for a successor to the festival's co-founder and artistic director for the past 41 years, Helmuth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"jeffrey kahane and yo-yo ma at oregon bach festival","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/5864896036_3d439de024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12732,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/26\/oregon-bach-festival-preview\/","url_meta":{"origin":6654,"position":1},"title":"oregon bach festival preview","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We're just had our first rehearsal of the first week of the 2013 Oregon Bach Festival. It's a big year for the organization, with the founding conductor and artistic director Helmuth Rilling stepping into the role of artistic director emeritus with the ascendance of Matthew Halls as the new artistic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "summer festivals"","block_context":{"text":"summer festivals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/summer-festivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Helmut Rilling","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/8894099714_657e769e60.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7199,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/12\/31\/my-top-musical-experiences-of-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":6654,"position":2},"title":"my top musical experiences of 2011","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sure that I will have forgotten something obvious, and except for item #1, the list is roughly in reverse chronological order. Send in your favorites from 2011 in the comments section below. The Oregon Symphony's Carnegie Hall debut. It would be hard to top this one. I'd been to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6675,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/07\/10\/clarity-whats-it-worth\/","url_meta":{"origin":6654,"position":3},"title":"clarity – what’s it worth?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today was the last concert of the 42nd season of the Oregon Bach Festival. We finished out, appropriately enough, with the great Symphony No. 9 of Ludwig van Beethoven. At the helm as OBF music director Helmuth Rilling, who has held that position for all of the festival's 42 year\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12763,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/07\/07\/obf-passing-the-baton\/","url_meta":{"origin":6654,"position":4},"title":"obf – passing the baton","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It was my final performance at the Oregon Bach Festival for 2013, and it was quite a historical event for the festival. This concert marked the symbolic 'passing of the baton' from founding Artistic Director Helmut Rilling to the Artistic Director Designate Matthew Halls. Rilling conducted a family affair first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1044258_10151705975801162_893702049_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1044258_10151705975801162_893702049_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1044258_10151705975801162_893702049_n.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1044258_10151705975801162_893702049_n.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14164,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/07\/11\/oregon-bach-festival-2016-wrap-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":6654,"position":5},"title":"oregon bach festival 2016 wrap-up","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow. 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Thomas Quasthoff, Yo-Yo Ma, Jeffrey Kahane,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "summer festivals"","block_context":{"text":"summer festivals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/summer-festivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/macmillan_conducts.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}