The model for this fascinating chamber version of the "German Requiem" was the arrangement by Arnold Schönberg's "Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen". Between 1918 and 1921, the twelve-tone master and his circle of students prepared numerous orchestral scores for small ensembles so that they could be heard in exemplary performances by a small circle of seriously interested listeners. With no more than 14 instruments plus vocal ensemble, the version that Walter Nußbaum originally developed together with students in Hanover makes do. The increase in interpretive flexibility is enormous: "Color tones, differentiated agogics, agile articulations – everything that chamber music offers can be realized here," the conductor says of the slimmed-down score. Anton von Webern's early masterpiece for large orchestra is a marvel of orchestration whose reduced version was repeatedly performed in Schönberg's private music circle. Much like Brahms' "Requiem", the "Six Pieces" are also closely linked to the death of the composer's mother.

Concert without intermission