Opbrouck & Brahms

The Vlaams Radiokoor and Het Banket, alongside actor and illustrator Wim Opbrouck, shed new light on Brahms' Requiem.

Johannes Brahms is an icon. Say Johannes, and you know it means Brahms. But how well do we really know Brahms? How close does he let us get to him in his music? The major themes of this classic, sorrow and hope, are made universal and palpable. It becomes an even more human requiem where recognition, imagination, and solace take center stage.

Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem depicts the 19th-century individual in their quest for redemption amidst loss. The 21st-century rendition by the Vlaams Radiokoor and Het Banket portrays today's introspective and contemplative individual: just as Brahms sought the right notes and melodies to bring a bit of solace and hope in times of adversity, our thoughtful human seeks the right words, the right lines, the right images to console and hope.

Actor and illustrator Wim Opbrouck embodies this questing individual. He charts his way through darkness, seeking illumination and hope—until he is carried away by Brahms' and Schumann's heavenly notes.
 

photo: © Carlo Verfaille