City of London Choir and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Hilary Davan Wetton conducts Strauss: Four Last Songs and Brahms: A German Requiem

LIFE, LOVE, DEATH AND REDEMPTION
City of London Choir and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Strauss: Four Last Songs
Brahms: A German Requiem

Claire Rutter - Soprano
Stephen Gadd - Baritone

The City of London Choir and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra join forces once again under conductor Hilary Davan Wetton to perform two of the most powerful and evocative works of the Romantic canon.

Internationally acclaimed soprano Claire Rutter will be singing the sublime Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss which were written in 1948 (shortly before the composer’s death at the age of 84), but titled and published posthumously.

With three texts by Hermann Hesse and the fourth by Joseph von Eichendorff, all the songs except the first (Frühling) explore the subject of death. Composed so near to the end of his own life, Strauss’s settings are imbued with an unfaltering sense of calm, serenity, love, acceptance and fulfilment.

A German Requiem was composed by Brahms while he grieved for his mother who died in 1865; it may well also have been inspired by the death of his mentor Robert Schumann several years earlier.

Written for chorus, orchestra, soprano and baritone soloists, A German Requiem is sacred but non-liturgical, set in vernacular German rather than Latin. The music is full of optimism, focusing on the blessings of life and faith in the resurrection. Stephen Gadd will be joining Claire Rutter, Hilary Davan Wetton, the RPO and the City of London Choir to perform this magnificent piece.

About the City of London Choir:
The City of London Choir has been described as a ‘leader among non-professional choruses’ and, under the inspirational leadership of Hilary Davan Wetton, has earned an enviable reputation for its distinctive energetic and focused sound and the quality of its performances.