A German Requiem (Brahms) the traditional Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, which employs a standardized text in Latin, the text is derived from the German Luther Bible. Brahms's first known use of the title "Ein deutsches Requiem" was in an 1865 letter to Clara Schumann in which he wrote that he intended the piece to be ""eine Art deutsches Requiem"" (a sort of German Requiem). Brahms was quite moved when he found out years later that Robert Schumann had planned a work of the same name. "German" refers primarily to the language rather than the intended audience. Brahms told Carl Martin Reinthaler, director of music
Music for a Time of War his list of the most memorable classical performances of 2011. Allan Kozinn, music critic for "The New York Times", considered the program "pained" and "thought-provoking", and wrote that Sylvan performed with his "characteristic acuity". He called the woodwind and brass playing in "Sinfonia da Requiem" "superb", specifically highlighting the "pointed" percussion in "Dies Irae" and the "haunting" string tone in "Requiem Aeternam". Like Ross, Kozinn thought Symphony No. 4 was performed "with a furious, incendiary energy" that made an ideal ending to the program. In September 2011, the Symphony confirmed that Kalmar's contract, previously set to expire in 2013, had