Brahms Orchestral & Vocal Works Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid & Marzena Diakun

• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): Schicksalslied von Friedrich Hölderlin op 54:
• 1 Brahms: Schicksalslied von Friedrich Hölderlin op 54 - Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll 15:55
• Vier Gesänge op 17:
• 2 Brahms: Vier Gesänge op 17 - 1. Es tönt ein voller Harfenklang 03:21
• 3 Brahms: Vier Gesänge op 17 - 2. Lied von Shakespeare 01:36
• 4 Brahms: Vier Gesänge op 17 - 3. Der Gärtner 03:19
• 5 Brahms: Vier Gesänge op 17 - 4. Gesang aus Fingal 05:26
• Liebeslieder Walzer op 52:
• 6 Brahms: Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 1. Rede, Mädchen, allzuliebes 01:10
• 7 Brahms: Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 2. Am Gesteine rauscht die Flut 00:49
• 8 Brahms: Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 4. Wie des Abends schöne Röte 00:44
• 9 Brahms: Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 6. Ein kleiner, hübscher Vogel nahm den Flug 02:39
• 10 Brahms: Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 5. Die grüne Hopfenranke 01:39
• 11 Brahms: Liebeslieder Walzer op 52 - 11. Nein, es ist nicht auszukommen 01:07
• Rhapsodie Op 53:
• 12 Brahms: Rhapsodie Op 53 11:16
• Nänie op 82:
• 13 Brahms: Nänie op 82 12:32
• Gesang der Parzen von Goethe Op. 89:
• 14 Brahms: Gesang der Parzen von Goethe Op. 89 11:27
• Total Runtime 01:13:00

Info for Brahms Orchestral & Vocal Works

The Brahms vocal compositions (for their quality and abundance – over 400 of them) made Brahms a “worthy heir to Beethoven” in Germany, throughout Europe, and finally in France, where Ravel was the first and one of the few to admire “the beauty in his melodic ideas, their quality of expression and above all the brilliance of his orchestral language”. Schoenberg also later praised the innovation of his musical language in his Style and Idea.

The excellence of Brahms’ work was summed up by Joseph Joachim, the celebrated Hungarian violinist, composer and conductor who worked with Brahms, and who described his music as “pure as a diamond, soft as the snow”. Schumann also praised the serenity and optimism of the tone with which Brahms ended his most sombre and tormented pieces: “Over choppy waves finally a rainbow shimmers, as the nightingale’s song accompanies the capricious flight of the butterfly”. This album compiles some of the most important vocal & orchestral works that best define the German composer.

Brahms was enchanted by the music of female voices, and in 1859 he founded a choir for women in Hamburg, which attained excellence, and for which he composed Four Songs, Op. 17 with accompaniment for two horns and harp from three poems by Tuperti, Shakespeare and Eichendorff, and the fourth based on a page from Ossian’s Fingal. The composition, with its balance of joyful (1 and 3) and somber melodies, met with great success. To listen to Brahms’ songs as he conducted, from high in the branches of a tree at the summer concerts in the gardens outside Hamburg, would surely be an unforgettable experience.

Agnieszka Rehlis, mezzo-soprano
Orquesta y Coro Comunidad de Madrid
Marzena Diakun, conductor
Josep Vila I Casanas, choir master

Marzena Diakun
Early on, conductor Marzena Diakun stood on stage and reached the maturity of experience at a young age. The orchestral and choral works of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Shostakovich became her daily musical mission. Sought after for her interpretations of French and Bohemian masters, her own programmes focus on the great Polish composers Penderecki, Karłowicz and Szymanowski.

Since September 2021, she has been artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestra and Choir of the Comunidad de Madrid (ORCAM). In addition to her regular work in the Spanish capital, she returns time and again to orchestras to which she has special ties, such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the OSPA Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.

Her association with Ensemble Intercontemporain is the culmination of two decades of premieres and performances of new works by many Spanish, Dutch, Austrian and Polish composers. Her latest CD, Polish Heroines of Music, is a testament to her expertise and commitment.

A teacher and mentor herself, she gratefully recalls the encouragement she received from great conductors such as Kurt Masur, Pierre Boulez and Marin Alsop.

Booklet for Brahms Orchestral & Vocal Works