On Maundy Thursday, April 17, in Kimball Recital Hall, UNL’s University Singers will give a Nebraska premiere of the “London version” of Johannes Brahms’s Requiem (also known as the German Requiem or Ein deutsches Requiem). Brahms composed the four-hand piano score at the request of his publisher in 1869, the year after he completed the Requiem’s fifth movement (the last to be composed). While this edition is often referred to as the “London version,” this title is a bit misleading. Performed with more than 30 of the best professional singers in London and two recognized concert pianists, this now-complete seven-movement July 10, 1871 London premiere version of the Requiem was held in the parlor of the stately high-society English home of Sir Henry Thompson and his wife, the pianist Kate Loder (Lady Thompson). The pianists were Kate Loder and Cipriani Potter and at this performance, they used the four-hand piano score. The chorus sang in a Victorian English translation that is now lost to the ages. That Victorian edition had already been in circulation for over a year at the time of the 1871 performance.

Over the past 150 years, it has become apparent through letters written by Brahms himself, that he had always intended the text to be ‘audience-friendly’ rather than in a language foreign to the listener, a personal version, so to speak, one for those remaining after the loved one’s passing—and most believe that Brahms’s mother’s recent passing inspired the masterpiece. UNL’s version is an updated American-English version compiled by conductor and Professor of Music at UNL, Dr. Peter A. Eklund. It omits the frequent Victorian “thee,” “thou,” “thine,” and “thy” references and puts the text in a refined, modern manner.

The University Singers will be joined by collaborative artists: Dr. Paul Barnes, the Marguerite Scribante Professor of Music and Co-Area Head for Keyboard and also Dr. Brenda Wristen, Associate Professor of Piano Pedagogy at UNL. They will be on two nine-foot grand pianos downstage.

The soloists will be doctoral students in vocal performance at UNL.