ARS ANTIQUA AUSTRIA
Ensemble for new baroque music
Fragile empresses and their composing (and rather war-averse) spouses, prince-archbishops devoted to bodily pleasures and composing canons, the Turks before Vienna or night watchmen in the final stages of liver cirrhosis: these are some of the themes with which ARS ANTIQUA AUSTRIA, this unusual baroque ensemble founded in Linz in 1989 by Gunar Letzbor, concerns itself.
For Austria in the baroque era not only encompassed a far larger territory than the appendix one sees today on the globe, but also many peoples with their respective folk music — and their very own traditions and social customs: the joie de vivre of the southerners, the melancholy of the Slavs, the formalism of the French, the courtly ceremonial of the Spaniards, and the wit (and sometimes also the stubbornness) of the Alpine inhabitants of the German-speaking regions created in the lands of the K.u.K. monarchy a very special cultural climate. Over the centuries, this gave rise to a distinctive mixture of church, court, and folk music with a dance-like character that still defines the typically Austrian style to which ARS ANTIQUA AUSTRIA is devoted.
Alongside the well-known great names of the repertoire, the ensemble focuses above all on new discoveries. With undiminished research enthusiasm over the past four decades, Gunar Letzbor has unearthed a rich trove of fascinating music from dusty monastic libraries and dark corners of archives in his homeland. Numerous works by composers such as Weichlein, Biber, Conti, Viviani, Mealli, Arnold, Caldara, Aufschnaiter, Vilsmayr, Vejvanovsky, Schmelzer, and Muffat thus received their modern premieres, and over one hundred recordings — predominantly first recordings — have seen the light of the CD market, to the delight of audiences and critics alike.
At the same time, established great figures of baroque concert life such as Vivaldi or Bach also receive their due in the work of ARS ANTIQUA AUSTRIA, often in unusual interpretations that nevertheless always remain committed to the current state of scholarship and to historically informed performance practice — among other things through the preferred collaboration with the singers and soloists of the St. Florian Boys' Choir for the baroque and classical repertoire..
Concerts and tours have taken the ensemble to festivals and concert series throughout Europe; the ensemble is also a welcome guest in the USA and Japan. Not least, Gunar Letzbor’s way of presenting the music in relaxed conversation with the audience plays a role here: in very good spirits, very individual, very witty — simply very Austrian …
SONUS on ARS ANTIQUA AUSTRIA:
What characterizes this ensemble is, first of all, its very special repertoire focus: Austrian baroque music. This focus, however, is certainly also responsible for another particular quality of the ensemble: its exceptionally rounded and warm, yet always slender and highly flexible sound, which the musicians have developed over more than 25 years — without ever losing the courage for the quirky or daringly grotesque when the content calls for it!
At a time when many baroque ensembles indulge in the fashion of an almost cuttingly sharp tone, Ars Antiqua Austria delights with a sonic aesthetic that immediately evokes in the listener the association of a comfortably heated Viennese coffee house with a most delightful selection of Bohemian pastries — simply appetizing!
Yet the most beautiful sound would be worth nothing without the technical qualities that equally define the ensemble, namely excellent intonation, stylistic confidence in handling the scores, sovereign virtuosity, and outstanding ensemble playing — both in Austrian repertoire and beyond.
Audio samples
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern: Sonata VI from Fidicinium sacro profanum
D. G. Antonio Pandolfi Mealli: Sonate a violino solo
Gregor Werner: Pro Adventu, Cantilena de immaculate Ihr blumenreichen Felder
H . I . F. Biber: Sonatas on the Mysteries of the Rosary - the Mysteries of the Joyful Rosary
SONATA I: Jesus, whom you, O Virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit
I. Praeludium - recording 1996
H . I . F. Biber: Sonatas on the Mysteries of the Rosary - the Mysteries of the Joyful Rosary
SONATA I: Jesus, whom you, O Virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit
I. Praeludium - recording 2019
H . I . F. Biber: Sonata No. 9
Forte Presto
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