Since its premiere in 2012 the »human requiem« has received overwhelming response all over the world. The production has made guest appearances in New York, Hong Kong, Athens, Brussels, Amsterdam, Granada and Adelaide.

In 2016 »human requiem« made the New York Times’ »The Best Classical Music” list and received the Classical:NEXT Innovation Award.

»I’m in tears … in the darkness, I heard your voice giving me the light, the hope, the love … this is the best that I have had in years.«
Composer Tan Dun, Brüssel 2016

Music, up close and personal: With »human requiem« the Rundfunkchor opened up a new dimension of musical experience. The division between the spaces for stage and audience is dissolved, the listening public does no longer sit in front of the sound but instead right in the middle of it, creating a new set of interrelationships between the text, the actual bodies of performers and listeners, the space and the sound.

»Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.« Jochen Sandig takes Brahms’ Requiem by its word. The proximity of the singers offers a sublime communal experience, thus enabling the audience to grasp the message of humanity with all senses. Within the community of singers and listeners this message becomes a space-filling and personal event: a »human requiem«. In an oft-cited letter to the conductor Carl Reinthaler, Brahms wrote in 1867: »As regards the text, I must confess that I would gladly leave off the ›German‹ and replace it simply with ›human‹.«

The Brahms Requiem is a permanent fixture in Berlin Radio Choir’s core repertoire. Its CD recording with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle won the 2008 Grammy for »Best Choral Recording«, the first of three Grammys.

Press Reviews (Selection)

A Purely physical sensation • The New Yorker (October 2016)

»The beginning was a gorgeous shock: members of the choir had infiltrated the audience (…) For me, it was enough to be swept up in the sounding throng, experiencing music as a purely physical sensation.« (Alex Ross)

Great immediacy and intimacy • New York Times (17 October 2016)

»What brought it all together was a superbly polished and persuasive performance in the round by the Berlin Radio Choir … It all brought the work home in a new way, with great immediacy and intimacy.« (James Oestreich)

The hottest classical ticket • Gramophone (May 2012)

»The hottest classical ticket in Berlin this February was »human requiem«. … That it worked as well as it did was testament to superb training, coordination and talent of all involved.«

A deeply moving experience • The Advertiser (15 March 2018)

»human requiem is a deeply moving experience that has some claim to be the musical highlight of the 2018 Adelaide Festival … It  is one of those rare performances that will stay with you for a long time, because it connects in a profound way with what it is to be human.«

A gorgeous highlight • Adelaide Review (19 March 2018)

»The experimental projects of Rundfunkchor Berlin have garnered worldwide attention and in human requiem their delivery of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem re-imagines choral performance in a gorgeous highlight of the Adelaide Festival.«