Ars Antiqua Austria & Gunar Letzbor

Ars Antiqua Austria was founded in Linz in 1989 with the aim of introducing audiences to the roots of specifically Austrian baroque music played on period-instruments. The music performed at the imperial court in Vienna at this period shows the strong influence of Italy and later of French forms, while Spanish court ceremonials also shape the character of the works. The typical Austrian sound of the period also betrays the influence of the many Crownlands. The political and social boundaries of Austria in the baroque era were far wider than in the 20th century.

Admittedly, the name Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter initially sounds like that of an Austrian minor master – this composer has remained virtually unknown until now, even in specialist circles. But such is far from the case with Aufschnaiter: Gunar Letzbor, who has released an entire series of impressive excavations of Austrian sacred music during recent years with his ensemble Ars Austria Antiqua, even refers to him as the 'Catholic Bach'! Both composers – Bach and Aufschnaiter – cultivate a compositional style of masterly polyphony that must have been almost ananachronim in their day but their mastery was unsurpassed. The fact that each composer arrived at completely different results may have something to do with the difference between Catholic and Protestant culture.

The numerous sonatas of the violinist-composer Antonio Bertali constitute a fascinating testimony as to the imperial splendour and culture at the Viennese court c. 1650. After being a violinist in the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona from 1620 to 1624, Bertali left for Vienna where one of the heights of his career was is appointment as Kapellmeister on October 1st 1649, and he would hold this position up to his death in 1669. Even though famous as a violinist in his lifetime, Antonio Bertali is not one of the bestknown composers for violin.

Romanus Weichlein was an Austrian composer and organist of the mid Baroque period who published a set of 12 sonatas for strings and continuo in 1695 entitled Encaenia Musices.In some of the sonatas the strings are joined by 2 trumpets to spectacular effect and it's very clear that these admirable compositions were influenced by Heinrich Biber's Sonatae Tam Aulis Servientes of 1676.Weichlein is believed to have met Biber when in Salzburg and it's quite apparent that Biber was to have a big influence on the slightly younger composer.

Gregor Werner (1695-1766) began directing the fortunes of the Esterházy court band, the Hofkapelle, on 10 May 1728. He was an industrious man. Forty Masses, three Requiems, three Te Deums, four Offertories, twelve Vespers, twelve Good Friday oratorios, approximately eighteen oratorios, a hundred and thirty-three antiphons and a multitude of instrumental pieces and minor works testify to his fertile creative spirit.

Carlo Ambrogio Lonati, a flamboyant character from Italy’s violin scene, was born in Milan and moved to Rome at age 25, where he became known as the “hunchback of the Queen” Christina of Sweden. His stature predestined him as a singer for roles of gnomes and dwarves in Rome’s opera scene.

The Habsburg Imperial Court was a melting pot of many different cultures in which the zest for living of southerners, the Slav melancholy, French formalism, Spanish courtliness and the original German-speaking Alpine cultural region intermingled. Together with his Ars Antiqua Austria ensemble, Gunar Letzbor occupied himself over a ten year period to produce this 10CD "Klang der Kulturen" box, a musical tour of the individual countries that formed the roots of and influences on the music of baroque Vienna, documenting them in live recordings, with each CD representing one country.

Wenzel Ludwig Edler von Radolt’s collection of lute music entitled ”To my most true and confiding friend”, inclined both to the merry and to the sad humours, herewith in the company of other faithful vassals of our innermost sensibility’ was printed in 1701 in Vienna by J(oh)ann Michael Nestler and bears a dedication to the then‚ Roman King’ Josef I.
Radolt was of Austro-Italian aristocratic descent. He was born and died in Vienna. According to his own account, he spent his life ”so allured by the beguiling countenance of most pleasurable music, as to dedicate the course of my life to her“. The ‘Most true and confiding friend’ is the only work of Radolt that survives today.