Concert by the Heinrich-Schütz-Kantorei Freiburg - The "Missa Sacra" and the "Requiem" by Robert Schumann

The Heinrich_Schütz-Kantorei Freiburg performs two rarely performed works:
The "Missa Sacra" and the "Requiem" by Robert Schumann

Both works - Schumann composed them in 1852, four years before his death
- have never been able to establish themselves in concert halls and churches. Only rarely
does one hear of a performance, even though in the concert world of recent decades
the illumination of the periphery has almost become a matter of course and
many jewels of our musical heritage are thus brought to light.

How did Schumann, who is known to us not at all as a church musician but as a
composer of piano music and lieder, as a man of letters and as a critic, come to compose a mass in his
last years and a requiem immediately afterwards?

Schumann wrote about this in a letter in 1851: "To devote the power
of sacred music remains the artist's highest goal. But in our youth
we are all still so firmly rooted in the earth with joys and sufferings, and as we grow older
the branches probably also strive higher. And so I hope that this time
will not be too far away from my aspirations."

In the church, Schumann was not so much looking for immersion in the word of God,
consolation or the teachings of the church, but rather a mysticism, the "immersion" in
religious feelings and solemnity. He found this in the mysterious,
Latin mass and requiem texts - just think of their ancient
tradition! For him, it was rather "the romantic feeling that greedily drew new nourishment from the approach
to the incomprehensible."

Robert Schuman (1810-1856)
Requiem in D flat major, op. 148
Mass in C minor, op. 147

Soprano: Verena Seyboldt
Alto: Miriam Stelzer
Tenor: Erik Grevenbrock-Reinhardt
Bass: Lorenz Kauffer

Heinrich Schütz Kantorei Freiburg and its orchestra

Conductor: Cornelius Leenen