Ejens Förster

The best-known piano studies are the 27 by Chopin, most of them composed in the 1830s. But Chopin did not create the genre: a number of prominent pianist-composers had already established the piano study, or étude, in the decades before Chopin sat down to write his. Although this repertoire is as good as unknown today, it is a treasure-trove of miniature jewels, many of them announcing the dawn of Romanticism in their combination of Classical delicacy and a new harmonic warmth.

Hymn singing is fundamental in protestant churches, but not normally the subject of an album released worldwide. The musicianship presented here is singular, sung by two volunteer choirs with power and emotion. The inspired arrangements heard on this recording have developed over decades of working with wonderful choirs and congregations, as well as by singing with, and listening to, many inspired colleagues. Some of the descants were conceived for particular services, while other arrangements grew further for special occasions. Several of the brass arrangements were composed for the ordination and consecration of the Rt. Rev. Alan Gates as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 2014.

Georg Forsters fünfteilige Edition der ,Frischen Teutschen Liedlein' ist die wohl bedeutendste von Liedern in deutscher Sprache aus Sammlung der Hochrenaissance. Da mutet es schon seltsam an, dass bisher nur ganz wenige Einzelsätze aus dieser umfassenden Sammlung auf CD veröffentlicht wurden - eine CD, die sich ausschließlich dieser Sammlung widmet, liegt hier überhaupt zum ersten Mal vor.