The model for this particular version of the "German Requiem" was provided by Arnold Schönberg with his "Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen" (Society for Private Musical Performances), which worked on various large-scale chamber music works between 1918 and 1921 in order to get to know them in detail. Walter Nußbaum's version makes do with no more than 14 instruments, a vocal ensemble and two soloists. 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 Webern's early masterpiece for large orchestra is likewise a marvel of the art of orchestration, and its reduced version was repeatedly performed in Schönberg's private music circle. Much like Brahms' "Requiem," the "Six Pieces" are closely related to the death of the composer's mother.

Concert without intermission