Issues involving the early performances of Ein deutsches Requiem have influenced modern judgments about the work and therefore need to be reviewed here as well. The premiere in Bremen of the six-movement version in 1868, still lacking the final fifth movement with the soprano solo, has in particular been the focus of much discussion because of the opinions expressed by Karl Reinthaler, the conductor who skillfully prepared the chorus for that performance, and his choice of additional repertoire for the concert. Reinthaler's comments are consistently marshaled to support the contention that the Requiem is not explicitly Christian. However, a more thorough investigation of the exchange between Reinthaler and Brahms offered here skews his testimony in a different direction. Previous scholars have emphasized one concert in Bremen. Yet in the first fifteen years of its existence, the work was performed more than two hundred times in more than one hundred cities, representing eleven different countries (using political boundaries at the time, sixteen using current ones). These performances, which have yet to be systematically examined, will shed additional light on the early attitudes toward the Requiem that are drastically different from what has been portrayed. A variety of performance-related topics will be surveyed, such as the work's role in Protestant observances (especially Holy Week and Good Friday concerts), the impact of performance venues, performances in translation and the work's reception outside Germany, and the work's nationalistic reception within Germany that closely intersected with its Protestant character. Altogether, it will be shown that one person's remarks about a single performance cannot possibly do justice in charting and interpreting the widespread acceptance of the Requiem and what it meant as a deeply Christian work to its early audiences.

The Bremen Premiere and the Reinthaler Testimony

Four premieres were necessary for the Requiem to be fully introduced to the world. A preview of the Requiem that included only the first three movements took place in Vienna on December 1, 1867, performed by the Singverein of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Despite the positive reception of the first two movements, the performance has often been termed a fiasco, because the timpanist drowned out the other performers in the extended pedal point that closes the third movement.