Brahms – Rinaldo / Schicksalslied

Discogs

A worldly cantata composed by Brahms, written for a competition in 1863. Rinaldo tells the story about a knight in the Holy Land in the battle for Jerusalem. Rinaldo fights in the army of Godfrey de Bouillon, but the enemy sends a woman to kill him in the night. The assassin tries, but then falls in love with her sleeping victim. She prepares an enchanted garden for him. He can only escape, not willingly, with the help of his fellow knights.

Brahms follows the story in the words of Goethe, but the story was written by the Italian writer Torquato Tasso in 1581, under the title Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Liberated). It took Brahms until after the success of his Requiem to publish it, five years later. Brahms never wrote an opera, but this work is as close as it gets.

Rinaldo is not well known, but it should be. Maybe it is this performance, but I really liked this record. The B-side contains a perfect rendition of the Schicksalslied, one of Brahms better known choral works. Recommended.

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