Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel   Prelude to Lobgesang
Josef Rheinberger   Kyrie from Mass in E-flat
Josef Rheinberger   Abendlied
Mendelssohn   Warum toben die Heiden
Mendelssohn   Da Israel aus Ägypten zog
Brahms   Ein Deutsches Requiem

The presence of Bach is strong in this German Romantic programme. Although the choice of German texts for Brahms’ A German Requiem was unusual, the writing is steeped in counterpoint from the previous century. As children, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn both attended Berlin’s Singverein where they were deeply immersed in the music of Bach. Fanny’s prelude to Lobgesang echoes Bach’s Christmas Oratorio while brother Felix’s rarely heard but wonderfully tuneful cantata ‘When Israel came out of Egypt’ is wildly descriptive in the parting of the sea. The almost eighteenth-century classicism of Rheinberger’s and Mendelssohn’s sacred music looks back similarly, although its rich aural sheen betrays its deep Romanticism.