The Berlin Requiem (Weill)

Updated on Jan 31, 2024

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The Berlin Requiem (German: Das Berliner Requiem) is a 1928 composition for tenor, baritone, and choir of three male voices and orchestra by Kurt Weill to poems by Bertolt Brecht. The work had been commissioned by the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft who intended to broadcast the work on all its stations. However Brecht failed to abide by his contractual obligation to show the poems to the commissioning body for advance approval and the content, some of it a memorial to Rosa Luxembourg, led to several stations banning the performance.

Selected recordings

Berliner Requiem - Philip Langridge, Benjamin Luxon, London Sinfonietta, David Atherton, Deutsche Grammophon

Berliner Requiem - Alexandre Taiter, Peter Kooy, Elisabeth Glab, La Chapelle Royale, Philippe Herreweghe HMF, DDD, 1992

Berliner Requiem - Flemish Radio Choir, I Solisti del Vento, Paul Hillier Glossa, DDD, 2007

References

The Berlin Requiem (Weill) Wikipedia

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