Louis Lewandowski, conductor, choral director and organist at Berlin’s Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue, was a pioneer of modern Jewish liturgical music, whose reforms led to the creation of a new liturgy for Jewish synagogue services, a liturgy that combined classical Western music with traditional synagogue singing and restored an important role to organ music introducing a Romantic style influenced by Mendelssohn, whose family fostered Lewandowski’s career.

This first complete recording of his 1879 masterwork is conducted by Andor Izsák, who encountered the historic psalm singing tradition in his youth as organist at Budapest’s Great Synagogue in the Dohány utca. The performance uses Izsák’s 1994 edition, based on the long-lost original manuscript.

Deutsche Grammophon is proud to present this world premiere recording and wishes to thank the Hungarian Government and Hungarian Radio Art Groups for their generous support.