This album is a unique recording, presenting world-premiere recordings of Jacob Weiss's music, cantor of one of the Warsaw synagogues in the 19th century.

Weiss was both a composer, creating music in the spirit of Salomon Sulzer's reform, and an active cantor; a performer of psalms and hymns accompanying the daily prayer of Jews.

The synagogue with which he was most associated was the synagogue on Daniłowiczowska Street in Warsaw's Praga district. It was probably also there, on the same street, that Weiss had the opportunity to familiarise himself with music of the Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko.

Moniuszko's influence on Weiss's compositional idiom is significant; moreover, this music shares characteristics with Reformed synagogue music, which, breaking previous restrictions resulting from religious regulations, allowed instruments to speak, including the organ, which we will hear on the album.

In addition to Weiss's compositions, we will also hear music of Joseph Sulzer, the youngest son of the great reformer of 19th-century synagogue music – Salomon.

The organ is played by Jakub Stefek, an artist cooperating with the Jewish Community of Berlin, author of a publication on Jewish organ music; the vocal parts are performed by Isidoro Abramowicz, music director of the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue in Berlin, one of the most important synagogue music performers in the world.