|
Christa and Gerald Schönfeldinger
discovered
the world of glass music at the beginning of the 1990s.
Viennese-born, and imbued with a deep-seated feeling for
melody and rhythm, they had both trained as professional
violinists and had already begun orchestral careers when a
music riddle in the newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten attracted
their attention to a very special instrument: the Glass
Armonica. This was to have a determining impact on their
further professional lives.
They
attended an exhibition of historical musical instruments at
the Hofburg in Vienna, where, for the first time, they viewed
the rotating spindle with the graduated glass bowls nested
inside each other. This was followed by a visit to Munich to
the musical instrument designer and builder Sascha Reckert,
where the Verrophon, which Reckert himself had developed,
awaited their discovery and reinforced their decision to focus
intensively on the possibilities of making music with glass
instruments - a decision that ultimately led to their founding
the Vienna Glass Armonica Duo.
Thus
they rediscovered and revived an instrument which, after
enjoying a sensational wave of popularity in the 18th century,
had been virtually forgotten for almost two hundred years.
Today
the couple are among the world's leading performers on the glass
armonica and the verrophone. Not only have they succeeded
in bringing "historic"
playing techniques that have to some extent been handed down
over the centuries to a new level of perfection, they have also expanded the scope of
performance on glass instruments by adding new techniques and
contemporary music aesthetics to create unimagined
possibilities of musical sound.
As
far as the innate secrets of sound hidden in glass are
concerned, the process of discovery has been an unbroken one.
It has been, on the one hand, the primum mobile for the
composer Gerald Schönfeldinger, manifesting itself in
numerous CD recordings by the Vienna Glass Armonica Duo and
offering the public a sensitive symbiosis of poetic chamber
music and meditative sound experiences of extraordinary
intensity in live performances far from the beaten path of the
concert world. On the other hand, it has inspired the Schönfeldingers
to develop new projects in collaboration with artists of
various genres, including such well-knowns as Senta Berger,
Ruth Maria Kubitschek, Erika Pluhar, Christiane Hörbiger,
Peter Uray, Peter Wagner and Christian Ludwig Attersee.
The
ensemble's repertoire ranges from the traditional standard
works for glass armonica (W. Mozart, J. Reichardt, C. Röllig,
A. Schulz) to orchestral and opera literature (Donizetti,
Saint-Saëns, R. Strauss) as well as numerous arrangements (e.g.. Mozart, Grieg, Satie, Morricone) and avant-garde works
(e.g. Arvo Pärt, Jörg Widmann).
Contemporary
composers, too, have been inspired to create new works for
these fascinating instruments, for example Thomas Daniel
Schlee, W. R. Kubizek, R. Graf, Christian Mühlbacher, Ferry
Janoska and .....
Jörg
Widmann who entitled composition premiered at the international
Salzburg Mozart Festival 2007 by the Vienna Philharmonic under
Pierre Boulez and Christa Schönfeldinger "Armonica".
The
Vienna Glass Armonica Duo has also performed in concert with
the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra,
the Amati Quartet, Armonico Tributo Austria -Lorenz Duftschmid,
Musica Rara Erfurt, Adorján András and François Leleux to name
just a few.
The
duo has given concerts all over Europe, appearing at the
Musikverein Vienna, the opening of the Wiener Festwochen, the Klangbogen
Festival Vienna, the international Salzburg Mozart festival, Carinthischer
Sommer, International Haydntage Eisenstadt, Suntory Hall -
Tokyo, Opéra La Bastille - Paris, Dresdner
Musikfestspiele,
Mozartwoche Würzburg, the Philharmonie in Warsaw and
the Teatro Filharmonici in Milano as well as Berlin, Bayreuth,
Rome, Florence, Helsinki and Amsterdam.
|
