The early musical experiences of Puccini and Verdi, those two giants of Italian opera, were in fact gained in the field of sacred music. In 1880, at the age of 22, Puccini composed his Messa a 4 voci as a graduation exercise. When still a schoolboy, the 45-year older Verdi stood in for the organist in his home village; at the end of this life, he returned to church music, writing his Quattro pezzi sacri in the 1890s at the age of over 80. The Messa of the younger composer – which was believed lost until 1952 – is a joyful and scintillating work. Artistically, Verdi’s powerful and intense Pezzi sacri can be placed on an equal standing with his beloved operas.

Along with Handel's Messiah, which was greatly admired by Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), the oratorio The Creation is one of the few works of this genre written before 1800 that from the outset has enjoyed uninterrupted popularity with audiences and choirs alike. In this timeless classic dating from 1798, Haydn creates a musical world with such a variety of different expressive means that its radiant charisma is irresistible.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach thought highly of the art of his father, Johann Sebastian. However, this did not prevent him from pursuing his own path. Even when Carl Philipp Emanuel made himself a candidate for the position of Thomaskantor as Johann Sebastian’s successor, he did not reverently demonstrate his artistic ties to his father. Instead, he accentuated his compositional independence in one of his first choral works and confidently presented himself with a Magnificat. In Leipzig, this would inevitably subject him to direct comparison with his father, who, at the age of 38, as the newly appointed Thomaskantor, had also presented a Magnificat as his first major work on July 2, 1723. To this day, Carl Philipp Emanuel’s Magnificat is measured against that of his father. In December 2020, the Gaechinger Cantorey chorus and orchestra under the musical direction of Hans-Christoph Rademann and together with an excellent ensemble of soloists performed both magnificent works together in concert – unfortunately in front of an empty hall but reaching their audience via livestream and recording it for this extraordinary release.