On 16, 17 and 18 January 2026, Josep Pons reunites with the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir (OCNE) to conduct Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) at Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música and the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville.
Composed between 1865 and 1868, A German Requiem is one of Brahms’s most personal works and one of the masterpieces of the symphonic-choral repertoire. Rather than following the traditional Latin Requiem, Brahms selected texts from Martin Luther’s German Bible to create a work intended to comfort the living rather than pray for the dead.
The score combines the grandeur of a large symphony chorus with remarkable intimacy and humanity. Across its seven movements, Brahms traces a journey from grief to hope through richly woven choral writing and an orchestral language distinguished by balance, warmth and expressive depth.
The performances bring together the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir with internationally acclaimed vocal soloists for one of the defining masterpieces of German Romanticism.
The concerts also mark Josep Pons’s return to an institution with which he shares a close artistic relationship, having served as Music Director of the Spanish National Orchestra between 2003 and 2011. During those years he led an important period of artistic renewal, expanding the orchestra’s repertoire and developing numerous symphonic and recording projects.
Returning with A German Requiem reinforces that longstanding relationship. The work’s spiritual depth, monumental architecture and demanding choral writing make it one of the compositions most closely associated with Josep Pons’s artistic vision.