When worlds collide …

Who could have anticipated that the Minnesota Orchestra would be giving performances of Brahms' "Requiem" on the weekend that many people, not just here but around the globe, were in deep — and rather bewildered — mourning for Prince, the pop star who died at his home in Chanhassen?

The orchestra's programming is set years in advance. As such, what could only be coincidence — the performance on a sad occasion of a work of bracing humanity and earthy, unsentimental spirituality — may have taken on special significance for some members of the audience Friday night at Orchestra Hall.

Brahms seldom revealed his most private thoughts. His "Requiem," which he titled "A German Requiem," is assumed to have been prompted by the death of his mother in 1865 and by the passing some years earlier of Robert Schumann, whom he idolized.

A humanist and an agnostic, Brahms wrote his "Requiem" to bless not the dead, but those left living, to comfort those who mourn. It is a skeptic's "Requiem."

The conductor Friday night was the revered German Bach specialist Helmuth Rilling. This isn't to suggest that the 82-year-old Rilling, a frail figure who walks slowly to the podium, is revered in all circles. He has never been an adherent, for instance, of the early-music movement and its pursuit of "authentic" performance practice and period instruments. Many early-music enthusiasts consider his interpretations of the Baroque repertoire stodgy.

MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA With: Conductor Helmuth Rilling, soprano Letizia Scherrer, baritone Mathias Hausmann and the Minnesota Orchestra. When: 2 p.m. Sun. Where: Orchestra Hall, 11th St. and Nicollet Mall, Mpls. Tickets: $25-$79. 612-371-5656 or mnorch.org

About Brahms' music there is less contention. Working with the excellent Minnesota Chorale and two first-rate soloists, Rilling led a poised, warmhearted "Requiem" that flowed effortlessly and naturally from start to finish and skillfully balanced the reflective and dramatic qualities of the music.

The conductor's 30-minute lecture on the "Requiem" during the evening's first half was less successful. Thanks to his thick accent — or to inadequate amplification — quite a few of Rilling's unstartling insights couldn't be understood, at least not from a seat in the first tier, where two people nearby could be seen dozing before it was over.

No one dozed, however, during soprano Letizia Scherrer's tender solo in the fifth movement no during Mathias Hausmann's commanding baritone solos. The stars of the evening were surely the chorus singers, who, despite their large numbers, brought clarity and resonance to even the most demanding fugal passages. The chorale's esteemed director, Kathy Saltzman Romey, is a longtime friend and colleague of Rilling's.

Michael Anthony is a Twin Cities classical music critic.