As Max Reger’s cousin and as student of Joseph Rheinberger Hans Koessler, a friend of Johannes Brahms, grew up in a musically highly inspiring environment. Franz Liszt appointed him to his Royal Hungarian Music Academy in Budapest to influence as one of the most sought-after teachers of composition an entire generation of Hungarian composers. Among his students are such well-known names as Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, Fritz Reiner and Emmerich Kálmán. The Drei Gesänge/Three Serious Choruses from 1891 to 1893 are based on texts of German romanticism dedicated to the religious contemplation of nature and the theme of love. Koessler’s four- to eight-part settings demonstrate the harmonic and contrapuntal richness of his compositional skills. All choral pieces include singable English lyrics in addition to the original German texts.