Paul Gerhardt: |Warum sollt ich mich denn grämen?

Paul Gerhard is more than ‘mere’ soothing balm for the soul. Across centuries, the poet, theologian, and pastor has become not only one of the great ‘classics’ in hymn books, but his songs have already been the source of hope, joy, and courage even in the midst of everyday life for innumerable people from all continents and for many generations. They motivate, comfort, and support. And time and again, they inspire an awe of nature’s beauty and of a good God’s undying mercy. Paul Gerhard’s songs have remained as current as if the Baroque poet were a fashionable, contemporary song-writer. The present CD musically portrays Paul Gerhard through the lens of the Romantic era—in the melodious settings of the sacred composer Friedrich Mergner (1818-1891), who set all of Paul Gerhard’s 154 song texts to music. The internationally acclaimed tenor Martin Petzold and St Thomas’s Boys Choir under the direction of Georg Christoph Biller (cantor at St Thomas) present a selection from this rediscovered treasure trove. They present the songs alongside another rarity which is here recorded on CD for the first time: texts about Paul Gerhardt from anecdotes, novels, and letters. Be it Joseph von Eichendorff, Theodor Fontane, Jochen Klepper, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer—Paul Gerhard played a significant, even existential role for later generations.