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The Vienna Glass Armonica Duo Works by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Christa Schönfeldinger ~ Glass Armonica A concert recording from the basilica of the CD Audio, DDD, ca. 55 Minuten |
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They are built of natural stone, these noble halls of this world heritage site. A fascinating thought when you're standing under arches that are hundreds of years old. The stones seem to whisper - because, in the quiet of their existence, you seem to feel how they are imbued with all those voices and instruments that filled these walls with their sounds - violins, the sound of trumpets, the organ and singing' wood and metal. But in the end, isn't it the material of the body that makes the sound of an instrument?
It was the sound of the glass armonica that inspired Mozart to write a minuet and, after hearing how his composition sounded on the glass harmonica, Arvo Pärt gave the Ensemble his one-time permission to perform "Pari Intervallo" with the "glass instrument". Even Gottfried Keller described the sound and effect of the instrument as "...then it began to play in the most ghostly tones I have ever heard..." Now, the glass armonica is made of glass - plain old glass - melted sand, nothing more. But this is also the same basic material as these world heritage walls are made of - natural sandstone... And during this concert by these Viennese artists, it was as if I could feel the walls vibrating and I thought I heard the very stones singing. Josef-Stefan Kindler |
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The Vienna Glass Armonica Duo Christa and Gerald Schönfeldinger studied music in Vienna and are trained violinists. They first discovered the glass armonica through the Strauss opera "Die Frau ohne Schatten" (The Woman Who Had No Shadow). Fascinated by the sounds made by the glass, they formed the Vienna Glass Armonica Duo at the beginning of the 1990s and are now among the leading players of glass armonica and verrophone worldwide. Free of the usual concert circuit, they offer their enthusiastic audiences a lyrical mix of poetic chamber music and a meditative world of sound that is amazing in its intensity. Different "crossover" projects involving language and literature have brought both of them into contact with actors and speech artists like Senta Berger, Erika Pluhar, Peter Uray, Claus Boysen and Christian Ludwig Attersee.
These two artists, like the Austrian physician and mesmerist Franz Anton Mesmer, also deal with the mental and physical effect of the sounds made by glass. Their audio seminars offer participants the chance to use sound vibrations to achieve inner tranquillity and regenerate their hearing from the stress caused by the daily deluge of noise.
More information at: www.glasharmonika.at |
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The Vienna Glass Armonica Duo
Gottfried Keller (1819-1890, Text) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Gerald Schönfeldinger (geb. 1960) Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Edward Grieg (1843-1907) Gerald Schönfeldinger Arvo Pärt (geb. 1935) Ennio Morricone (geb. 1928) Gerald Schönfeldinger * arranged for Verrophone und Glass Armonica |
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The Series Publishing culture in its authentic form entails for us capturing and recording for posterity outstanding performances and concerts. The performers, audience, opus and room enter into an intimate dialogue that in its form and expression, its atmosphere, is unique and unrepeatable. It is our aim, the philosophy of our house, to enable the listener to acutely experience every facet of this symbiosis, the intensity of the performance. The results are unparalleled interpretations of musical and literary works, simply - audiophile snapshots of permanent value. The concerts in Maulbronn monastery, which we document with this edition, supply, in many ways, the ideal conditions for our aspirations. It is, above all, the atmosphere of the romantic, candle-lit arches, the magic of the monastery in its unadulterated sublime presence and tranquillity that impresses itself upon the performers and audience of these concerts. Renowned soloists and ensembles from the international arena repeatedly welcome the opportunity to appear here - enjoying the unparalleled acoustic and architectural beauty of this World Heritage Site (monastery church, cloister gardens, lay refectory, etc.), providing exquisite performances of secular and sacred music. Under the patronage of the Evangelical Seminar, the Maulbronn Monastery Cloister Concerts were instigated in 1968 with an abundance of musical enthusiasm and voluntary leadership. Within the hallowed walls of the classical grammar and boarding school, existent for more than 450 years, some of society's great thinkers, poets and humanists, such as Kepler, Hölderlin, Herwegh and Hesse received their first impressions. The youthful elan, the constructive participation of the pupils, continuing the tradition of their great predecessors, constructs an enlightened climate in which artistic ambitions can especially thrive. Twenty-five concerts take place between May and September. Their success can be largely attributed to the many voluntary helpers from near and far. Flourishing culture in a living monument, created for the delight of the live audience and, last but not least, you the listener, are the ideals we document with this series - directly in digital stereo. Andreas Otto Grimminger & Josef-Stefan Kindler |
