BRAHMS German Requiem (arr. Brahms, Poos) * Joshard Daus, cond; Fionnuala McCarthy (sop); Michael Voile (bar); Jonathan Adler, Thorsten Kaldewei (pn); Benjamin Heil (kd); European Academy Ch * GLOR GC09191 (60:07)

Brahms wrote a two-piano version of his Requiem, wherein the pianos replace the large orchestra, to spread the popularity of the work. Composer and musicologist Heinrich Poos (born in 1928) conceived the idea of adding the timpani section of the orchestral version to the two-piano version. Now, why didn't Brahms think of this? Finding a percussionist should have required just Replica watches a bit more effort than finding two pianists (and two pianos), so that the spread of popularity would not have been much impeded by lack of resources. Second-guessing Brahms (admittedly a risky undertaking), I would say that he did not want to transmogrify his Requiem to a "Wreckuiem" to spread its popularity. There are a few places where the kettledrums sound appropriate with the piano sound-adding gravitas-but there are many more places where the drum sound is farcical. As much as possible, I tried, intellectually, to filter out the timpanic bombast. I am thus led to the conclusion that Brahms's arrangement (without Poos's interference) is very interesting and makes for worthwhile listening, especially for those who find (as do I) the Requiem to be one of the greatest choral-music treasures. The two-piano arrangement is not a substitute for the full magnificence of the original, but this was not Brahms's intention.

The soloists and chorus, and the conducting, are very professional on this disc. The pianos' sound is somewhat masked in many places. This could have been averted by different microphone placement or by different mixing. I am guessing that Brahms, the pianist, would want the pianos to be somewhat prominent.

This disc was my first encounter with Brahms's two-piano arrangement of the Requiem. ArkivMusic lists four recordings of the two-piano version-none with timpani-with conductors Jeremy Backhouse, Harry Christophers, Stephen Cleobury, and Laurence Equilbey. These conductors are not exactly household names, but this fact does not commit their CDs to the scrap heap. The only pianists on these discs whose names I recognize are Gary Cooper (under Christophers) and Boris Berezovsky (under Equilbey). (These people are, respectively, neither the American actor nor the Replica watches Russian mathematician-oligarch.) The piano sound might be more prominent on one or more of these discs than on the disc under review, which could make listening to the Brahms arrangement, in the absence of timpanic intrusions, quite rewarding. I welcome readers to try any one or more of them.

If it weren't for Poos's presence in the matter, I would recommend this disc to Brahms Requiem fans. But reality prevents me from doing so. Burton Rothleder