A German Requiem (Brahms) humanism persists through the work. Brahms purposely omitted Christian dogma. In his correspondence with Carl Reinthaler, when Reinthaler expressed concern over this, Brahms refused to add references to "the redeeming death of the Lord", as Reinthaler described it, such as . In the Bremen performance of the piece, Reinthaler took the liberty of inserting the aria "I know that my Redeemer liveth" from Handel's "Messiah" to satisfy the clergy. In addition to soprano and baritone soloists and mixed chorus, "A German Requiem" is scored for: Since Brahms inserted the fifth movement, the work shows symmetry around the fourth movement, which
The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music a fourth contributor was listed also as a co-author, Paul Czajkowski, who had been listed an editor from the 2002 book. The "Guide" was often found in the classical departments of record stores. In earlier editions, the Guide awarded each recording a rating of between one and three stars, with extraordinarily favoured recordings receiving a rosette. From 2007-2010, the publication used four stars to denote records which are "exceptional issue[s] on every count". DVDs of operas and classical music concerts and Super Audio Compact Discs were also reviewed. As provided by "The Penguin Guide To Recorded Classical Music": NOTE: A