Generations of highly esteemed musicians have worked at Leipzig's Thomaskirche with its world-famous boys' choir. Most of them are hardly known today like Tobias Michael, Sebastian Knupfer, Johann Schelle or Johann Kuhnau. These four composers were the immediate predecessors of the most famous Thomaskantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, and all of them also created wonderful music. One sacred concert each on "Machet die Tore weit" by Johann Schelle and Tobias Michael will open the programme. The most splendid and extensive composition is Sebastian Knupfer's "Dies est laetitiae" for 22 voices, divided into a five-part trumpet choir with timpani, strings, bassoon, three flutes, six soloists and a four-part choir. The only composer on this CD who was not Thomaskantor is Johann Caspar Horn. His composition "Es begab sich aber zu der Zeit", a setting of the well-known Christmas text from the Gospel of Luke, has been documented to have been performed in St. Thomas Church.