St Thomas’s Boys Choir: |a Portrait

One of the world’s oldest music ensembles: in 2012 the Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir Leipzig) celebrates its 800th birthday. Rondeau Production presents a unique musical portrait which not only characterises the Thomanerchor Leipzig (St Thomas’s Boys Choir Leipzig) and its director, the cantor at St Thomas, Georg Christoph Biller in a loving manner, but also opens a window onto the ensemble’s musical heritage. At the heart of this snap-shot from 800 years saturated in musical tradition stand Leipzig’s two compositional poles: Johann Sebastian Bach, who composed much of his sacred music as cantor at St Thomas, and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy who as Gewandhauskapellmeister made Leipzig become the capital of the Romantic world, musically on par with Vienna and Paris. In addition to Leipzig’s obvious musical prominence, other former cantors of St Thomas are also recorded on this disc: personalities such as Wilhelm Rust and Gustav Schreck who too were famous in their time and also had an impact across the musical horizon. They too account for the fact that the tradition of liturgical singing at St Thomas is seamless and is until the present day deeply admired across the globe.