The first version of Abendlied was composed in 1855 when Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) was just fifteen years old. It is perhaps his most famous choral work, paying homage to the great sacred music of the Renaissance with short moments of imitative writing blended with glorious homophony.  The text, drawn directly from Luke 24:29, is set primarily in a syllabic style, providing poetic clarity, with the phrase ‘Bleib bei uns’ (‘Stay with us’) repeated three times as a structural anchor. As evening approaches – ‘und der Tag hat sich geneiget’ (‘and the day has declined’) – the text is passed between the voices, flowing downwards from the highest voice, conjuring an image of the sun dropping lower and lower in the sky before disappearing below the horizon.

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