Brahms' German Requiem
Soul Music
BBC
4.7 • 831 Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2013
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How Brahms' German Requiem has touched and changed people’s lives.
It was written as a tribute to his mother and designed to comfort the grieving,
Stuart Perkins describes how the piece arrived at the right time in his life, after the death of his aunt.
Axel Körner, Professor of Modern History at University College London, explains the genesis of the work and how the deaths of Brahms' friends and family contributed to the emotional power of the piece.
Daniel Malis and Danica Buckley recall how the piece enabled them to cope with the trauma of the Boston marathon bombings.
Simon Halsey, Chief Conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir, explores how Brahms' experience as a church musician enabled him to distil hundreds of years of musical history into this dramatic choral work.
For Imani Mosley, the piece helped her through a traumatic time in hospital. Rosemary Sales sought solace in the physical power of Brahms' music after the death of her son. And June Noble recounts how the piece helped her find her voice and make her peace with her parents.
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact
Producer: Melvin Rickarby
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Traitors is back, and so is that mysterious cloaked figure with the familiar fringe. |
| 0:06.6 | Yeah, it's me. |
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| 0:28.3 | Watch on EyePlayer, listen for more on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.0 | I first met my Auntie Madge in 1984 when I was 16 years old. |
| 0:36.8 | It was her first trip back to England since 1944. She came running |
| 0:42.1 | down the arrivals hall at Heathrow Airport, shouting my dad's name out at the top of her voice. |
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| 1:01.5 | almost as quickly as I was making them she had a way of looking inside you and just knew you inside |
| 1:07.4 | out she had the most amazing eyes they would fix on you when you were saying |
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| 1:17.2 | understood you. The amount of time we spent sitting in her kitchen and so many of the things |
| 1:24.0 | that she would tell me about my life just made sense. We would cover |
... |
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