All the compositions on this CD may justifiably be classified under the noble seal of "Romantic choral music". Even though they are all, without exception, religious works: How multifarious were the composers' incentives, how diverse were the places and occasions, for which the Motets and Cantatas were composed! Religious music in the secular 19th century: for Anton Bruckner alone, this would have meant divine service and the cathedral. For Mendelssohn, by contrast, it would have meant festivals or concert halls as well - and for Brahms a personal dialogue with God. In the case of Joseph Rheinberger lastly, whose "Abendlied" (Evensong) forms, from his home town of Munich, the final chord of this anthology, the Lutheran biblical text irrevocably transforms into a prayer full of genuine feeling, which would be sung in the home as well as by choral societies. |
