Not only Italian composers dominated at the Viennese court of the 17th century, the secular Italian chamber cantata form was also extremely popular. Usually these were about Cupid’s love arrows and the disappointment of the senders when they missed their target. Around 1708 Antonio Maria Bononcini, who followed his brother Giovanni to Vienna, also composed around 13 of these works for Joseph I.
Three of them could be heard on Saturday in the first concert of the “Ars Antiqua Austria” series “Sound of Cultures” in the Brucknerhaus. Three works neatly written by the same copyist for the Imperial Archives and probably intended for the same contralto, who, however, must have been of a very limited height. Only very rarely does Bononcini allow melodies to go beyond the middle octave.
A position that the evening’s soloist, Alois Mühlbacher, knows how to use effectively, but which would not allow his rather high altus, which reaches far into the mezzo range, to sound in the ideal position. He reacted skilfully to this and very freely varied the da capo parts, which were written out unusually in the manuscripts, and moved them to a higher register that was much more sonorous for him. This is not quite true to style in this sense, but it enabled Alois Mühlbacher to show his voice in the best register and not just to sing impressively and emotionally.
The ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria – on this evening with conductors Gunar Letzbor and Nina Pohn (violins), Peter Trefflinger (cello), Ján Krigovsk (violone), Hubert Hoffmann (lute) and Erich Traxler (harpsichord) – was an attentive companion.
Antonio Maria Bononcini was also one of the first cello virtuosos, and so Peter Trefflinger skilfully supplemented the program with the “Sinfonia per camera” in C minor and the “Sonate per camera” in A major with two works that are probably unique in their kind.
- Bruckner house: Ars Antiqua Austria and Alois Mühlbacher, November 19
Source: Nachrichten
