The music and poetry of Pietism offers a beauty that hardly any form of Lutheran religiosity can rival. It is rarely found more radiantly beautiful...

The music and poetry of Pietism offers a beauty that hardly any form of Lutheran religiosity can rival. It is rarely found more radiantly beautiful than in the great collection of hymns Troens rare Klenodie (The Rare Treasure of Faith) by the most important Danish representative of the Pietist movement, Hans Adolph Brorson (1694-1764). The melodies of the sacred Pietist songs are, in their strongly affective nature, in perfect accordance with the fervent and sensual mode of expression found in the texts. Selected from J.A. Freylinghausen's Geistreiches Gesangbuch and among J.S. Bach's contributions to Schemelli's Musicalisches Gesangbuch those melodies are to be heard here, along with related galant music for flute, harpsichord and guitar from the court of the Pietist Danish King Christian VI.