Hello and I'm a conductor and I'm the artistic

director of the Lozan Chamber Orchestra in Luzon, Switzerland. This podcast is for anyone who loves

classical music, works in the field, or is just getting ready to dive into this amazing world of incredible music.

Before we get started I want to thank all of my Patreon sponsors for making season six possible.

If you'd like to support the show, please head over to Patreon.com

slash Sticky Notes Podcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please just take a moment to

give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. Every rating review helps more people

find the show and it is greatly appreciated.

I'd also like to send a big thank you to Thomas for sponsoring today's show on Patreon. In February of 1865, Johannes Brahms received a letter from his brother saying,

quote, if you want to see our mother again, come at once.

Brahms rushed off to Hamburg, but was two days too late.

He wrote to Clara Shumon, quote,

God took my mother away as mercifully as possible.

She had not changed at all and looked as sweet and kind as when she was alive.

Brahms had long thought about composing a requiem, after Robert Schuman's death in 1856 it had crossed his mind.

But though we don't have clear evidence for this, the catalyst for him finally setting something down to paper, does seem to have been the death of his mother.

And it is a requiem like no other.

Spurning the traditional use of the Catholic Mass, Brahms compiled a requiem based on biblical texts that he had chosen himself.

A religious skeptic, Brahms never once mentions the name of Jesus Christ, a thorn in the side of many listeners at the time of its premiere and even

into the 20th century.

But what Brahms made clear in numerous letters at the time and even in the title of the

peace, a German requiem, was that this was a personal requiem dealing with

...