The new version of Brahms's Requiem is the least rewarding of the issues here. This is due to the recording rather than the performance, though that has obvious limitations too. I sometimes think that Gramophone today has need of a new review section into which many of the 'choral' records would go: 'Orchestral with choral obbligato' might be its title. The Naxos here is a good example of a thoroughly bad practice. They have an admirable choir: no need at all to be ashamed of it. However, it is placed so far back in the recording-balance that it almost sounds like voices coming from off-stage. In the first movement, the solo oboe on its entry has more presence than the whole of the choir. In the fourth (''Wie lieblich''), the orchestra's fp markings at ''Meine Seele verlanget'' are the only aurally vivid feature. The general acoustic is unhelpful too, presenting far too hazy a wash of sound. The reverberance also dulls the effect of both soloists, and in the closing bars of ''Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit'' the clarinet and flute have more immediacy than the soprano has had throughout.
Miriam Gauci and Eduard Tumagian both sing well, Gauci with a particularly pure upper register, Tumagian with healthy resonance; but neither has the spirituality their music requires, Gauci insufficiently tender, Tumagian too stolid in his depiction of man's life passing as a shadow. Rahbari is sensible in his speeds, but unimaginative in building the crescendo of ''Denn alles Fleisch'' and he carries real conviction only in the ''sound of the trumpet'' passage, the vivace of No. 6, which is rather late in the day.
The reissues are far more sharply defined in sound, the Tennstedt on EMI being decidedly the better, both in quality of sound and in the care and insight of performance. That is not tantamount to recommending it, however. The speeds, particularly of the outer movements (one and seven), are inordinately slow, and, though many fine details of the score can be savoured in this way, the effect is too often that of an object passed in slow motion for close (and admittedly loving) inspection. Sawallisch favours much quicker speeds, but sometimes, notably in ''Wie lieblich'', is merely businesslike. His choir, the Vienna Singverein, has its usual complement of trembly sopranos, and his soloists give limited pleasure, Wilma Lipp because her light, somewhat insecure voice is out of place here, Franz Crass because he gives so little expression to the text. Jorma Hynninen, with Tennstedt, is easily the best of the three baritones under review, Jessye Norman being only marginally so among the sopranos, for her tone is too vibrant and earthy, especially in the first half.
The second CD of the Philips set has a good selection, useful to anybody feeling their way with Brahms and wanting to fill in some gaps. These are spirited performances, and the recordings survive well, particularly the earliest, the St Antoni Variations (1959) which splendidly reproduces the rich colouring of brass and woodwind. The contralto, Aafje Heynis was, I think, in rather better voice when she recorded the Alto Rhapsody a little earlier with the Concertgebouw under van Beinum; but she has a real feeling for the work, and the quiet passages have a memorably individual quality.
The EMI set of the Requiem needs its second CD because Tennstedt's speeds are so slow that the last movement has to start a second disc. The coupling with the Schumann Requiem and Requiem fur Mignon is quite a happy solution, though the performances are under another conductor, Bernhard Klee. I wish I could sincerely write of the works with enthusiasm: it is only at certain, rather short-lived passages in both scores that I can catch the authentic, or at any rate the movingly personal, voice of Schumann. The Requiem (1852) is one of his last compositions, and some commentators have seen forebodings of death. If anywhere, that would surely be in the closing pages, which have a gentler, deeper beauty than the rest. The Mignon Requiem also seems to achieve depth and tenderness only towards the end, with the start of the baritone solo. Here, Fischer-Dieskau is placed rather surprisingly close, and in the Op. 148 Requiem Helen Donath's shallow, slightly tremulous tone is hardly welcome. Otherwise these are attractive recordings.'