New York, NY — Concerts at Saint Thomas opens their Spring 2018 concerts with a
March 22 performance of the intimate two-piano arrangement of Brahms’ towering
A German Requiem. The performance features the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys alongside soloists Hyesang Park (soprano) and John Brancy (baritone), and pianists Michał Biel and Katelan Terrell, all of whom are up-and-coming Juilliard graduates. The rarely heard two-piano version allows for a degree of precision and contrapuntal clarity not always found in the orchestral version.
The intensity of the Brahms work leads into Holy Week, which will be observed with a pair of musical meditations on the organ, with Associate Organist Benjamin Sheen on March 26 and Organist and Director of Music Daniel Hyde on March 27. Each performance surveys the spiritual and theological influences of the music of J.S. Bach on three of the nineteenth century’s greatest composers—Mendelssohn, Brahms and Schumann.
