A Loving Tribute at Memminger
Maestro David Stahl
SATURDAY NIGHT at Memminger Auditorium, the Charleston Symphony Chorus presented a beautiful and meaningful performance of Brahms’ “German Requiem” in tribute to the late David Stahl, its former music director and conductor. Dr. Robert Taylor expertly and lovingly conducted the orchestra and a combined chorus of over 200 souls and two soloists.
The chorus, singing the original German text, and the orchestra filled the auditorium with waves of sound that were overwhelming, particularly in the massed fortissimi. The chorus consisted of the Charleston Symphony Chorus joined by the College of Charleston Concert Choir, members of the Taylor Festival Choir, the Charleston Symphony Spiritual Ensemble, the Charleston Men’s Chorus, and other invited singers.
The evening opened with a touching memento, an excerpt from Barber’s “Adagio,” with projected slides of Stahl with his family and with his mentor, Leonard Bernstein. A complete text in German and English was provided in the program, but, alas, the house lights were extinguished during the entire presentation.
More worrisome was the all-too-obvious video camera on a dolly that moved slowly back and forth in front of the front row of seats during the entire concert. I also assume that the same camera crew festooned the stage with a ridiculous number of microphones which they will find gives them a marvelous multiple-mono sound track (a long discredited style of recording stereo). In all fairness, they did have at least two other cameras, one stage left all but hidden in the darkness of the wings, and one other centered in the lower balcony, neither obstructing anyone’s view nor distracting or irritating audience members.
Dr. Robert Taylor
The soloists were Saundra DeAthos, soprano, and David Templeton, baritone, both with distinguished musical backgrounds and appropriately splendid hall-filling voices. What was so gratifying about this performance was Taylor’s balancing of the large chorus, soloists, and the orchestra so that every musical thread was heard. Often in this Requiem, conductors are overly reverential, using boringly slow tempi. Taylor judiciously chose moderate tempi, always keeping the musical matters moving along.
Brahms’ unique “German Requiem” was not written in the traditional liturgical setting of the Roman Catholic Mass as found in Mozart’s unfinished death-bed visions or Verdi’s operatic drama. Instead, Brahms chose selections from the German-language Lutheran Bible of which he was a student, despite his not being an evangelical believer.
Brahms studied earlier composers, especially of the Baroque period. It is believed that he knew Schütz’s German burial mass, “Musikalische Exequien,” and Bach’s “Actus Tragicus” (Cantata, BWV 106), but they may or may not have had an impact on this composition.
The traditional mass is a plea for the peace of dead souls. Brahms’ Requiem is designed to provide comfort for grieving, living souls. Brahms refused to be tied to doctrinal matters. There is no mention of Purgatory or Jesus Christ. He put it this way: “I could easily dispense with the word ‘German’ and replace it with ‘Human.’”
The audience was respectful throughout and responded with a lengthy standing ovation for this splendid performance.
