Masaaki Suzuki - Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Masaaki Suzuki was better known as a keyboard player in the first decade or so of his career, but since founding the Bach Collegium Japan in 1990, he has established himself as one of the leading conductors of Baroque choral music. Revered as a Bach specialist, Suzuki has led the Bach Collegium in a complete survey of the composer's choral works and many of his orchestral works, including the Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites, for the BIS label. In addition, Suzuki has recorded Bach's complete works for harpsichord and, in 2015, began a cycle of the composer's organ works. His repertoire also takes in the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, and many others. In 2020, he issued a recording of Bach's Toccatas on harpsichord.

Suzuki was born in Kobe, Japan, on April 29, 1954. As a child, he exhibited musical talent early on and, by age 12, was a church organist. He later enrolled at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he studied composition and organ. His teachers there included Akio Yashiro and Tsuguo Hirono. After receiving a master's degree in organ performance in 1979 (his bachelor's was in composition), he decided to take further instruction, enrolling at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam to study organ with Piet Kee and harpsichord with Ton Koopman. In 1980, Suzuki was awarded second prize in harpsichord improvisation at the Flanders Early Music Festival in Bruges, Belgium, and three years later received third prize for organ playing there. During this period, he also taught harpsichord at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Duisburg, Germany (1981 until 1983). In 1983, he began appearing regularly in Japan as an organ and harpsichord soloist while serving on the faculty at Kobe Shoin Women's College, where he continues to teach as a guest professor.

TRACKLIST

1 I. Selig sind, die da Leid tragen
2 II. Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras
3 III. Herr, lehre doch mich
4 Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45: IV. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen
5 V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit
6 VI. Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt
7 VII. Selig sind die Toten



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