Kammersinfonie Hamburg / Michaeliskantorei Kaltenkirchen / Daniel Zimmermann

Mendelssohn’s symphonic cantata »Lobgesang« is a work of jubilation, commissioned for the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, which the city of Leipzig planned to commemorate with special music in 1840. For this occasion, Mendelssohn composed festive music that falls somewhere between church music and concert hall music: the symphonic structure, the use of vocal parts and biblical texts, and the absence of an oratorical plot are the distinctive features of the composition, which also takes a broad thematic sweep and interprets the invention of the printing press as parallel to humanity’s spiritual enlightenment.