Gotthold Schwarz; Michael Schonheit - Mit Christian Furchtegott Gellert Aus Leipzig......

With his collection Geistliche Lieder und Oden (Sacred Songs and Odes), published in Leipzig in 1757, the poet Christian Furchtegott Gellert seems to have struck a chord in his time. There is no other explanation for the fact that so many settings of these texts were published in the very first years.

With these Leipzig poems in our luggage, our journey of song begins with settings by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and leads all the way to Vienna and the compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Gotthold Schwarz (bass), for many years Kantor of St. Thomas' Church Leipzig, is accompanied by Gewandhaus organist Michael Schonheit on a Broadwood grand piano from 1805 � an instrument that would perfectly suit the period in which the songs were written. Ludwig van Beethoven himself owned a Broadwood grand piano built in 1807.