Lorin Maazel leads a rather slowish Brahms Requiem that emphasizes the work’s devotional characteristics. The relaxed tempos combined with an overall heaviness of texture makes the piece seem longer than its 73-minute duration. It doesn’t help that the recording, made in a large, reverberant acoustic, is low-level except for when the chorus enters en masse–at which point you’d best be ready with your volume control, because it gets really loud. But it’s an opaque sort of loudness that blurs much of the score’s inner detail. The New Philharmonia Chorus sounds to be an exceptionally large-bodied group, and it offers rich, robust singing, as does Hermann Prey in “Herr, lehre doch mich”. Ileana Cotrubas’ solo is not as angelic as some others (Schwarzkopf, Hendricks), but she sings beautifully nonetheless. The New Philharmonia Orchestra performs capably, though you can hear more of its contribution in the classic Klemperer recording, which features a far more incisive and compelling reading, as well as clearer sound.
