An evening of Bruckner and Brahms | Birmingham Choral Union

Bruckner composed this Mass in E minor in 1866, when he was living in Linz. Later, in response to a commission from Vienna for a performance in the open air, in the Cathedral square, Bruckner revised the accompaniment for brass and woodwind, without strings or organ. It is this rarely heard version that we shall be performing. The piece is deeply spiritual, looking back to the polyphony of Palestrina and forward to the romanticism of Brahms, and provides a moving musical experience.

Brahms’s Begräbnisgesang, Op 13 Funeral Music was one of his first published compositions, written in 1858, two years after the death of his friend Robert Schumann. The accompaniment is scored for brass, woodwind and timpani, to allow for open air performances, and is influenced by Gabrieli’s antiphonal brass writing. Although short, the piece has a shattering impact, and should be better known.