Stephen Kennedy

Brahms’s exquisite German Requiem is one of the best-loved pieces in the choral canon. Rather than setting his music to the conventional Latin Requiem Mass, Brahms collected together sacred texts, including psalms, in German. He saw the work as a 'human' requiem, which would give comfort to the living with text such as “Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted”.The Whitehall Choir’s performance will be accompanied on piano by Ian Tindale and Michael Higgins in the same version for four hands that Brahms himself prepared.They are pleased to have as soloists soprano Helen Semple and baritone Stephen Kennedy.In the first half of the concert the Choir will sing Fünf Gesänge, also by Brahms, and Schubert’s Psalm 23 (Gott is Mein Hirt), a beautiful work for women’s voices, and Zum Sanctus from Deutsche Messe for men’s voices. Ian Tindale and Michael Higgins will play Schubert’s piano duet, Rondo in A Major.