Die helle Sonn leuchtet - Deutsche Kirchenlieder

The hymn is a universal expression of the Christian heritage. It is virtually unmatched as a component of German culture and its history and continues to be anchored in our collective memory – even if not as firmly as it was one or two generations ago.
The repertoire of today’s hymnbooks quite literally spans millennia. The selection of songs recorded here by the Stimmwerck ensemble, however, focuses on a period of a little less than one and a half centuries. These years from the Reformation to the new beginning in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War indeed turned out to be of decisive importance in the history of sacred song. »O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,« «Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr,« »Mit Ernst, o Menschenkinder,« »Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,« »Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier« – who among us does not know these hymns representing the Christian legacy of sacred song?

Just as German folk songs are currently being rediscovered, so too this equally appealing recording can do the same for German hymns!