Brahms Requiem Part 1

Valerie Coleman’s Umoja expresses the joy of community, through a single irresistibly catchy tune. Not since Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry, Be Happy has a composer created such memorably euphoric music. Deep joy lies also at the heart of Brahms’ Requiem. It is his most personal work, composed as a response to the death of his mother. Its focus is not on the past, but on the present. The work’s majestic harmonies and soaring melodic lines are for us: they are comfort for the living.