The year 1865 began with a great loss for composer Johannes Brahms. That February, his mother died. By April, he had completed three movements of what was to become the longest composition of his oeuvre: a requiem in his native German.
This is an unusual requiem. While the Latin Mass begins with a prayer for the dead, Brahms wrote this requiem “comforting those who have lost loved ones,” said Ronnie Oliver, artistic director of EnsembleNYC.
