The four works presented in this volume – “Frühlings-Phantasie” op. 23, “Frühlings-Botschaft” op. 35, “Die heilige Nacht“ op. 40 and „ Beim Sonnenuntergang“ op. 46 – were composed between 1852 and 1870. All of these works belong to the “concert piece” genre, as the title pages of the respective first editions suggest.<br>
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The works’ instrumentation is varied: While „ Frühlings-Botschaft “ and „ Beim Sonnenuntergang“ are composed for mixed choir and orchestra, “Die heilige Nacht” calls for an additional solo alto. “Frühlings-Phantasie” is not scored for choir at all, juxtaposing the orchestra with four solo voices and piano. Gade based his texts on poems by Edmund Lobedanz (op. 23), Emanuel Geibel (op. 35), August von Platen (op. 40), and Andreas Munch (op. 46).<br>