Rockets from Mannheim and fireworks from Linz

It was the CEO of cpo, Burkhardt Schmilgun, who had the idea. He asked Michi Gaigg if she would be interested in recording works from the Mannheim School and other pre-Classical composters. Hesitation… pre-Classical, this is no-man’s-land in music history, not Baroque anymore, not Classical yet, the era between eras. In short, neither fish nor fowl.

In this case then, shall we politely decline?

Well, on the other hand the pre-Classicals, including the Mannheim School, depict a time packed with contradictions and turmoils, with endings and new beginnings, with not anymore and not yet, in short, as Michi Gaigg says, a time in which everything seems to be found at the wayside. It is a way leading straight to Vienna, to Haydn and Mozart. In the meantime Michi Gaigg and the L’Orfeo Barockorchester have recorded more than a dozen CD’s with works from this period and have grown to become advocates and experts for this music. Nobody knows the lumps and bumps of Fils and Holzbauer better, know how to dust down Gluck and Leopold Mozart and know where to find the end of the cord to ignite Wagenseil and Monn’s fireworks.

Off to Mannheim then!

This Audio is in German.

With samples from our discography:
Franz Schubert – Symphony No. 5
Georg Philipp Telemann – Miriways
MoZart – Zero to Hero
W. A. Mozart – Concert Arias for Tenor
Johann Christian Bach – Salve Regina
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – String Symphonies
Anton Fils – Symphonies
Ignaz Holzbauer – 5 Symphonies
Jean-Philippe Rameau – Suites from Zaïs & Hippolyte et Aricie

& Live recording: „50th anniversary concert of DRS 2” (Swiss Broadcast), Liestal, 28 March 2006
Georg Philipp Telemann: Suite in a minor

Design: Gabriela Kaegi

Goose flesh with L’Orfeo – selected tracks from the CD’s

The other day I listened to Schubert’s Fifth Symphony again. The beginning of the Allegro is light-hearted, smiling. Pianissimo. And then, forty bars later, the first Forte putting an end to all this sweetness. First the violins reach for the stars, two bars later the basses follow suit, and then together, with a huff and a puff, they find their way back to the first phrase. What a commotion during these few bars!
And then suddenly: there it is. My hair stands on end and I have goose flesh.

How does this work? Why do music and certain interpretations cause such physical reactions?

This Audio is in German.

With samples from our rich Telemann discography:
3 Overture Suites for Recorder (2 Oboes), Strings and B.c.
3 Overture Suites for 2 Oboes, (Recorder,) Bassoon, Strings and B.c.
Wind Overtures Vol. 2

& Jean-Philippe Rameau: Passepied Vif from Les Surprises de l’Amour, Opera-ballet en 3 entrées, Anacréon: Entrée III Les Nouveaux Caractères, direction: Sébastien d’Hérin (glossa)

Design: Gabriela Kaegi

Take a stroll through Telemann’s garden with Carin van Heerden

Let’s skip the first round: all those assumptions that Telemann was a writing maniac, or that his music is merely copy-paste. Or that he was a self-taught musician and essentially remained that. All old hat, and clearly malicious gossip by pedantic music crits from the 19th century. Bach held him in high esteem, Handel befriended him. Also Carin van Heerden and I are convinced: Telemann was an all-rounder, he was innovative and witty. Reason enough to linger in the garden of his orchestral suites, sometimes also called overtures or overture suites.