SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square will perform Johannes Brahms' compelling Ein Deutsches Requiem for their Easter concert on Friday, 18 April, and Saturday, 19 April, at 7:30 p.m. in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.
The ensemble will be joined by soprano soloist Celena Shafer and bass soloist Paul Whelan. Craig Jessop, music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, will be conducting.
Perennially noted as one of Brahms' most monumental works, Ein Deutsches Requiem ("A German Requiem") serves as a double memorial to his mentor Robert Schumann and to Brahms' mother. The text is drawn from biblical passages offering a message of salvation and hope. It breaks from the traditional Roman Catholic requiem mass that begs God to redeem the deceased and grant them eternal peace. Brahms builds on universal ideas of life and death while centering on the divine comfort offered particularly to those who mourn.
What makes the requiem especially apt for Easter performances are the themes of immortality and love surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was dedicated to the whole of humanity, not to an exclusive host of Christians. It was first performed as six movements in Vienna's Bremen Cathedral on Good Friday, 10 April 1868. Brahms added a seventh movement months later, after having worked on the opus for more than a decade.
Free tickets are required for the concert and are available to the public at the Conference Center ticket office (inside door 4) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and on the Internet (www.lds.org/events). Seating is limited to persons 8 years and older.