Description

In the period between 1680 and 1740, the recorder enjoyed extraordinary popularity in England with its outstanding cultural center London. The London publisher John Walsh alone, the most productive music publisher of the Baroque period, published over a sixth of all works for the recorder from the early 1690s onwards! While these publications were primarily aimed at amateurs, the multi-part Baroque recorder, which was brought to England by French court musicians in 1673, was also played by outstanding virtuosos in concerts in opera houses and theaters. These were mainly professional musicians from England, France, Italy and Germany. They were particularly attracted by the newly emerging public concert scene, which offered them an economic existence outside the courtly structures. 

All these conditions led to a unique musical diversity in England, in which the Italian and French styles not only existed alongside the British tradition, but in which Italian, French and English elements with different emphases were also profitably mixed - a fascinating plurality that is also reflected in the compilation of works on this CD. 

Founded in 2021, the Acanthus Baroque Ensemble is made up of the recorder player Magdalena Spielmann, the violinist Christophe Mourault, the harpsichordist Sobin Jo and the cellist Szczepan Dembiński. Magdalena Spielmann also performs internationally as a soloist. Her personal focus is on the interpretation of early music according to historically informed performance practice, whereby she also repeatedly realizes projects with contemporary music.

"...Magdalena Spielmann and the Ensemble Acanthus Baroque, founded in 2021, present themselves as technically brilliant interpreters with a pronounced sense for musical rhetoric. Surprising endings without ritardando, breakneck figurations, and artful ornamentation alternate with contemplative and sound-loving passages, felt more than played, without bar lines, so to speak “timeless” – wonderful!"
Thomas Sander (sander-klassik.de, 29.01.2024)

Description:

The CD Stürmische Zeit presents five world premieres as well as an Austrian premiere recording. The theme offers space for contextualization, which is used by the composers for a connection to current cultural, but also socio-political challenges.

The CD opens with the first recording of a work from the private archive of the renowned Tyrolean composer Werner Pirchner. The orchestral version of the incidental music (arranged by Peter Wesenauer), which Pirchner composed for a production of The Tempest by William Shakespeare at Vienna's Burgtheater (staged by Claus Peymann), was heard for the first time in Austria. Manuel Zwerger's exciting idea of bringing the baroque form of the suite into the present day and revitalizing it with dance forms from electronic music is effectively implemented. The Viennese musician and cellist Margarethe Herbert has created a new work for the celebrated Austrian cello quartet eXtracello with chamber orchestra, which makes very sensitive references to the MeToo movement. The work by jazz trumpeter and New Yorker by choice Franz Hackl for jazz trumpet and chamber orchestra entitled Snowball Earth refers to political and climatic challenges and expresses the hope that the current period of political coldness will give way to a dramatic blossoming. Josef Schiechtl introduces himself with the short piece Brainstorm. The basic idea here focuses on the individual, on mental storms, on ideas and thoughts in one's own head during the realization of a project. Finally, Romed Hopfgartner set the “Stormy Time” of the boy Peter Pan, who did not want to grow up, to music in a very film-musical language, based on the fairy tale of the same name by James Matthew Barrie.