Tausenden in Israel

Hamburg marked an important year in its history in 1762. The city’s large St. Michael’s Church had been destroyed by fire in 1760, and two years later the magnificent new Baroque structure (as yet without a tower) was dedicated. This event was celebrated as an official state ceremony, and of course Georg Philipp Telemann, the city’s music director, who by then was eighty-one years old, had to supply the music for it.