New Yorker Staats-Zeitung
May 1999

Brahms' Aesthetic of Renunciation
Conductor David Randolph with The St. Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra in Carnegie Hall
by Egon Stadelman

In his latest literary work, This Is Music, David Randolph, a brilliant conductor and musicologist, asked, "How do we experience music?" In 214 pages of scholarly as well as popular discussion, of equal interests to professionals and the general public, this expert gives the answer which will open a new world to music lovers of all ages.

And yet, the book does not give the whole answer. This, Maestro Randolph gives personally when he stands at the podium in Carnegie Hall and brings us a performance of one of the great classical works with his St. Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra. Last Friday it was Brahms' Requiem, which one heard reverently. Brahms' aesthetic is one of renunciation; his faith that of a free-thinking Protestant. With that he works with significant contrasts which, however, arise out of denial.

In the first movement, "Selig sind die da Leid tragen," the orchestra recalls the coloration of the second "Detmold" Serenade: the alternate singing of soloists and chorus, and the juxtaposition of tonal and church modes precludes any monotony or lessening of its stylistic grandeur. Maestro Randolph molds the score from its spirit. He puts more art into the smallest phrase than does any bending of bows in the First and Fourth Symphonies. Thus he succeeds in giving a flawless, convincing performance.

The chorus was resplendent in all its majesty.

Soprano Joyce Geyer, as soloist, approached an ideal performance. Her spotless, beautiful, efflorescent voice artfully alighted in "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit" in so fervent and unconstrained a manner that one thought that Nature herself sang the song of consolation. "Schicksalslied" and "Nänie" completed one of the splendid evenings which Maestro Randolph knows how to bring us.

(translated from the German by Sibyl Karn and Ilse York)