Requiem VB² 1

Scoring: Soli SAB, Coro SATB, 2 Cor, 2 Vl, Va, Org

The composer Joseph Martin Kraus was born in the same year as Mozart, and like Salzburg’s famous son, he was highly gifted and died too young. But in recent years he has received more attention. And rightly so!

He wrote his Requiem in 1775 at the age of 19, probably for his local parish church in Buchen in the Odenwald. Even in this early work Kraus showed himself to be a true exponent of the musical “Sturm und Drang” movement.

For all its youthful carefreeness and originality in terms of compositional technique, the music is characterised by great seriousness and depth of expression, combined with mainly dark instrumental tonal colors, abruptness, and at times also brusqueness.