Gunar Letzbor, Ars Antiqua Austria
Release Date: 26 January 2024
Label: Pan Classics
Packaging Type: Brilliant Case (Jewel Case size, Holds 2 CDs)
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 7619990104549
Description
Gunar Letzbor and his ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria have been working with violin music from the Habsburg Empire for decades, and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's violin sonatas from 1681 were, as Letzbor himself says, "a milestone in his artistic development". The first recording was made in 1994 and since then Ars Antiqua Austria has regularly performed this repertoire in concerts. While Biber was still largely unknown at that time, the composer and his work are now considered by audiences to be among the greats of the Baroque era. Biber was highly acclaimed by his contemporaries as a violin virtuoso and as a composer.
His portrait shows a noble man with great charisma and a dignified, proud bearing. However, after many years of studying the violin sonatas, Gunar Letzbor has now gained a completely different impression of Biber's personality, namely that of a daredevil and avant-garde composer. His violin sonatas are full of wild ideas, formal boundaries are dissolved, the technical demands go beyond all the limits of violin playing of his time. And most importantly, the emotions reach the limits of the emotional range. Gunar Letzbor puts all this experience into his new recording of Biber's violin sonatas from 1681 and, as with his recording of Biber's rosary sonatas (see PC 10409), once again presents a reference recording.
Tracklisting
Soloists, Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Joseph Keilberth
The Royal Wind Music
Anita Cerquetti
Tercia Realidad; Jorge Jimenez
Thomas Sanderling, Orchester des Nationaltheaters Mannheim
Soloists; Eroica Berlin; Jakob Lehmann
Leonor de Lera; Nacho Laguna; Pablo FitzGerald
Iskrena Yordanova; Zefira Valova
Gunar Letzbor; Ars Antiqua Austria
Gunar Letzbor; Ars Antiqua Austria
Gunar Letzbor; Ars Antiqua Austria
