Cantate per Contralto con Violini by Ars Antiqua Austria

Antonio Bononcini

Ars Antiqua Austria

Cantate per Contralto con Violini

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917292527
Catnr: CC 72925
Release date: 05 January 2024
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917292527

Catalogue number
CC 72925

Release date
05 January 2024

"The soloist, countertenor Alois Mühlbacher has a fine voice, beautiful at its top end; he is utterly in control of his voice and always uses it intelligently. ... It is beautiful and is open to being heard as an unhappy lover’s attempt to distract himself from his woes. The small ensemble accompanying him is thoroughly idiomatic, obviously well-schooled in the baroque style. The writing for the violins is often striking, providing a second contrapuntal line to Műhlbacher’s vocal line. The overall effect is an attractively sensuous form of lamentation."

Music Web International, 03-4-2025

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Under the rule of the enlightened Emperor Joseph I, many composers from the north of Italy took up appointments in Vienna. Antonio Bononcini was one of the most progressive composers of his time. We present here three cantatas by Bononcini from 1706. They were most probably first presented in musical academies. His amorous chamber cantatas captivate through their intimate, timeless beauty. The sensual violins engage in an entertaining competition with the longing, dreamy lines of the alto voice. The cantatas recorded here all concern themselves with the sorrows and longings of love for a distant partner.

They seem to have been conceived as a cyclic construction in which each piece exists in relationship to the others. Bononcini was a master of musical rhetoric and achieves a masterly combination of musical figures with poetic phrasing. These sensuous works were most probably performed on the occasion of noble academies. From the turn of the century, musical presentations were often designated as academies. With this new definition, academies were little by little also presented by lesser nobles and later even by the bourgeoisie.

Opnieuw een mooi album van het ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria met een wereldpremière-opname van drie cantates voor countertenor en violen van componist Antonio Bononcini. Deze cantates van Bononcini vormen een trilogie over het thema: verdriet en het verlangen naar een verre liefde. Ze werden indertijd gezien als innovatief en toekomstgericht. Met de wonderschone zang van countertenor Alois Mühlbacher en het spel van Ars Antiqua Austria, geleid door Gunar Letzbor, is het een prachtige opname geworden.

Onder het bewind van de verlichte keizer Jozef I kregen veel componisten uit het noorden van Italië een aanstelling in Wenen. Onder hen Antonio Bononcini, een van de meest vooruitstrevende componisten van zijn tijd. De drie cantates op dit album stammen uit 1706. Ze werden hoogstwaarschijnlijk voor het eerst uitgevoerd tijdens muziekvoorstellingen. Met hun intieme, tijdloze schoonheid zijn Bononcini’s amoureuze kamercantates betoverend. De sensuele violen gaan hier een aangename strijd aan met de verlangende, dromerige lijnen van de altstem.

Het lijkt of de cantates zijn bedacht als een cyclische constructie, waarin elk deel zich verhoudt tot de andere delen. Bononcini was een meester in de muzikale retoriek en verstond de kunst een voortreffelijke combinatie van muzikale figuren met poëtische frasering te realiseren. Vanaf de eeuwwisseling werden muziekvoorstellingen vaak aangeduid als academies. Met deze nieuwe definitie werden academies beetje bij beetje ook georganiseerd door de lagere adel en later zelfs door de bourgeoisie.

Ars Antiqua Austria werd in 1989 opgericht door de Oostenrijkse violist Gunar Letzbor, met als doel het publiek te laten kennismaken met de Oostenrijkse barokmuziek. Dankzij zijn inspanningen zijn tientallen composities voor het eerst in de moderne tijd uitgevoerd. Ars Antiqua Austria speelt op authentieke instrumenten en geldt als een hoogstaand ensemble in de wereld van de oude muziek.

Unter der Herrschaft des aufgeklärten Kaisers Joseph I. ließen sich viele Komponisten aus Norditalien in Wien nieder. Antonio Bononcini war einer der fortschrittlichsten Komponisten seiner Zeit. Wir stellen hier drei Kantaten von Bononcini aus dem Jahr 1706 vor. Sie wurden höchstwahrscheinlich zuerst in Musikakademien aufgeführt. Seine amourösen Kammerkantaten bestechen durch ihre intime, zeitlose Schönheit. Die sinnlichen Violinen liefern sich einen unterhaltsamen Wettstreit mit den sehnsüchtigen, verträumten Linien der Altstimme. Die hier eingespielten Kantaten beschäftigen sich alle mit den Sorgen und Sehnsüchten der Liebe zu einem fernen Partner. Sie scheinen als eine zyklische Konstruktion konzipiert worden zu sein, in der jedes Stück in Beziehung zu den anderen steht. Bononcini war ein Meister der musikalischen Rhetorik und versteht es meisterhaft, musikalische Figuren mit poetischer Phrasierung zu verbinden. Diese sinnlichen Werke wurden höchstwahrscheinlich im Rahmen von Adelsakademien aufgeführt. Seit der Jahrhundertwende wurden musikalische Darbietungen häufig als Akademien bezeichnet. Mit dieser neuen Definition wurden Akademien nach und nach auch von kleineren Adligen und später sogar von der Bourgeoisie veranstaltet.

Artist(s)

Ars Antiqua Austria

Austrian Baroque music takes centre stage in the repertoire of this unusual Baroque ensemble. The music performed at the imperial court in Vienna at this time was initially heavily influenced by the music of Italy, later by that of France; Spanish court ceremonial also had important artistic effects in Vienna. The typical Austrian sound of this era was characterised by the impact of its many royal domains. The political and societal boundaries of Baroque Austria stretched much further than nowadays. Elements of Slavic, Hungarian and Alpine folk music styles had lasting effects on art music, making up its specific sound. But the Austrian sound also reflects the temperament and the character of the people of the time: placed within the melting pot of many diverse cultures, amalgamating Mediterranean zest for life, Slavic melancholy, French formalism, Spanish royal ceremony and the original Alpine elements of the German-speaking region. This mixture of court music and folk music with a dance-like character outlines the typically Austrian sound.
Alongside many concert performances, the early years of the ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria were dedicated to musicological research of Austrian Baroque composers. The abundance of rediscovered works led to several successful premiere recordings: albums featuring the works of R. Weichlein, H.I.F. Biber, F. Conti, G.B. Viviani, G.A.P. Mealli, G. Arnold, A. Caldara, B.A. Aufschnaiter, J.J. Vilsmayr, J.P. Vejvanovsky, J. Schmelzer, G. Muffat, W.L. Radolt, C. Mouthon, J.B. Hochreither, F.J. Aumann and J.S. Bach were met with enthusiastic approbation from the international music press.
Ars Antiqua Austria have been designing their own concert series at the Vienna Konzerthaus since 2002, and at the Brucknerhaus Linz since 2008. The ensemble is leading a cycle of performances arranged over several years entitled “Klang der Kulturen – Kultur des Klanges” (“Sound of the Cultures – Culture of Sound”), consisting of ninety concerts set to be performed in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Krakow, Venice, Ljubljana, Mechelen and Lübeck.
Recent performances include concerts at the Festival de Musique Ancienne de Ribeauvillé, Berliner Tage für Alte Musik, Festival Printemps des Arts de Nantes, Mozartfest Würzburg (an opera production), Tage Alter Musik Herne, Festival de Musique de Clisson et de Loire Atlantique, Folles Journées de Nantes and Tokyo, Musée d’Unterlinden Colmar, Printemps Baroque du Sablon, Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival Bach de Lausanne, MAfestival Brugge, Bologna Festival, Vendsyssel Festival, Concerti della Normale di Pisa, Resonanzen Wien, Klangbogen Wien, Monteverdi Festival Cremona, Bayerische Staatsoper and the Salzburger Festspiele. The ensemble has also been welcomed in the USA and in Japan.
The CD recording with mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink (four cantatas by Francesco Conti) was awarded a Diapason d’or only one week after being issued. Gunar Letzbor and his ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria were presented with the Cannes Classical Award 2002 for their recording of the Capricci Armonici by G.B. Viviani.

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Gunar Letzbor (conductor)

Gunar Letzbor studied composition, conducting and violin at Linz, Salzburg and Cologne. His encounters with Nicolaus Harnoncourt and Reinhard Goebel ignited a deep passion for period instruments and performance practice, leading him to perform extensively with Musica Antiqua Köln, the Clemencic Consort, La Follia Salzburg, Armonico Tributo and the Wiener Akademie. In 1995, Gunar Letzbor founded his own ensemble, Ars Antiqua Austria, an instrumental ensemble of varying size dedicated in particular to the exploration of the rich, but neglected, baroque repertoire of his native country and its neighbours. His voyage of re-discovery has resulted not only in the unexpected finds of musical masterpieces otherwise destined to languish in obscurity, but also in the articulation of a unique instrumental sound characteristic for...

In 1995, Gunar Letzbor founded his own ensemble, Ars Antiqua Austria, an instrumental ensemble of varying size dedicated in particular to the exploration of the rich, but neglected, baroque repertoire of his native country and its neighbours. His voyage of re-discovery has resulted not only in the unexpected finds of musical masterpieces otherwise destined to languish in obscurity, but also in the articulation of a unique instrumental sound characteristic for Central Europe and its often deeply spiritual inspiration.

As a baroque violin soloist and with Ars Antiqua Austria, Letzbor has made numerous recordings (including several world premieres), featuring works by Mozart, Bach, Biber, Muffat, Aufschnaiter, Viviani, Schmelzer, Weichlein, Vejvanovsky, Vilsmayr and Conti. Many of these CDs received major record awards, including the Cannes Classical Award and Amadeus’ Disco dell’Anno. His recordings of works for violin solo: Vilsmayr’s and Westhoff’s partitas (both world premiere), Telemann’s fantasias and J.S. Bach’s sonatas belong to his most remarkable accomplishments.

Letzbor has performed at most of the major baroque music festival in Europe. He has taught at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck (Germany) and Vienna (Austria); he is a widely respected teacher, giving summer courses across Europe.

“Amongst the year’s finest issues we must mention Gunar Letzbor’s interpretation of Biber’s Rosary Sonatas. His intonation is impeccable, the sound is warm and generous, whilst his utter technical security and above all musicality is in evidence both in the devilish rapid passages and in those of heart-rending cantabile.” CD Classica

“Letzbor contributes dazzling violin playing in performances that are appropriately sombre yet pleasantly stylish.” Gramophone

“Biber’s vision could not find a more sympathetic interpreter than Letzbor, blessed with vivacity, virtuosity and fiery expressiveness, but also capable of making his instrument sing in Biber’s touching melodies.” Amadeus

“Letzbor’s performance is simply exceptional. He has added lustre to a composition that has no equal in the history of western music.” La Stampa

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Composer(s)

Antonio Bononcini

Press

The soloist, countertenor Alois Mühlbacher has a fine voice, beautiful at its top end; he is utterly in control of his voice and always uses it intelligently. ... It is beautiful and is open to being heard as an unhappy lover’s attempt to distract himself from his woes. The small ensemble accompanying him is thoroughly idiomatic, obviously well-schooled in the baroque style. The writing for the violins is often striking, providing a second contrapuntal line to Műhlbacher’s vocal line. The overall effect is an attractively sensuous form of lamentation.
Music Web International, 03-4-2025

...it gives an idea of how artistically-minded intelligentsia whiled away their long evenings. As such, it is a valuable documentary recording
Fanfare Magazine, 01-7-2024

We will hear a perfect fusion between the violins and the soft and velvety voice of this countertenor, which perfectly highlights the affections of the text so important in the baroque period, showing us that Bononcini is one of the most progressive composers of his time, as well as a master of musical rhetoric, where he achieves a masterful combination of musical figures with poetic phrasing. These are lovely chamber cantatas that will captivate you with their intimate and timeless beauty.
Ritmo, 01-7-2024

Under the direction of the Baroque violinist Gunar Letzbor, the Austrian countertenor Alois Mühlbacher performs, together with Ars Antiqua Austria, these magnificent cantatas which speak of ardent love with a touching simplicity. His timbre of voice is a marvel and his vocal abilities exceed Bononcini's melodic demands.
Sonograma, 29-5-2024

The 28-year-old countertenor Alois Mühlbacher attracted the attention of the classical music scene early on with his talent. In the moma Café he proves this with the song "S'io ritorno".
ZDF Morgenmagazin, 14-5-2024

The ensemble, led by Gunar Letzbor, offers effective support and most of the affective quality of these performances.
American Record Guide, 01-5-2024

Gunar Letzbor conducts an ensemble of five musicians from the violin in the manner we know: frank accentuation and vigorously structured lines, which contrast with the disembodied voice of the Austrian countertenor whose creativity of the da capo we especially appreciate.
Classica, 01-5-2024

In this historiographical novelty, in the interest of music, of high level, the greatest attraction of this recording lies in the fidelity to the writing. (...) Letzbor and his ensemble—like countertenor Alois Mülhbacher— barely make remarkable artistic decisions beyond the will of the strict objectivism of serving the musical text; with pristine tuning and beautiful sound, well enhanced by the recording. (..) Disc for collectors and enthusiasts of the genre.
Scherzo, 01-4-2024

Surprisingly enough, these three cantatas 'per Contralto con Violini' have not yet been recorded, but now they have (finally!) done so, in excellent performances, in which the historical performance practice has clearly been the guiding principle.
Opus Klassiek, 01-4-2024

Alois Mühlbacher sings these laments expressively, with smooth tone and accurate semiquaver runs. (...) He is excellently supported by Ars Antiqua Austria: a special word of praise for the violinist Gunar Letzbor and the nice rubato on descending semiquavers that he introduces into the second aria of Sopra l'orme d'Irene.
Gramophone, 01-3-2024

In order to make the experimental Bononcini explode as a brilliant fireworker, some artist excellence is required. Sound homework that has been completed without errors is presented here. But nothing more.
Rondo Magazine, 27-1-2024

All recording premieres, chosen by violinist Gunar Letzbor, who sympathetically accompanies the soloist with his ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria.
De Volkskrant, 18-1-2024

The Ars Antiqua Austria ensemble under the direction of violinist Gunar Letzbor plays very energetically and accompanies Mühlbacher’s singing effectively.
Pizzicato, 03-1-2024