Zimmermann & Brahms | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Five days after completing his ‘ecclesiastical action’ And Turning Then, I Saw There Great Injustice That is Done Under the Heavens, Bernd Alois Zimmermann took his own life. His oratorio on passages from Ecclesiastes and Dostoevsky is a grim, hard-hitting prophecy of loss and emptiness; a stark piece of performance art inextricably connected to the Fluxus school of late 1960s Germany. It stands in utter contrast to the hopeful humanity of Brahms’s German Requiem. Brahms’s glowing messages of brotherhood and consolation will feel renewed by Zimmermann’s urgent challenge to them.

Free Barlines post-concert event | Level 2 The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall
Artists involved in the performance will discuss the evening’s programme.

Ecclesiastical Action, for two speakers, bass and orchestra

Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970)

Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem)

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Location