![Ars Antiqua Austria - Aumann Oratorium de Passione Domini nostri Jesu Christi (2024) [24Bit-96kHz] FLAC [PMEDIA] ⭐️ Download](https://i0.wp.com/imageurl.xyz/images/2024/03/16/ab67616d0000b2731de3f69b76fe55715cc40238.jpg?ssl=1)
Ars Antiqua Austria & Gunar Letzbor – Franz Joseph Aumann: Passion Oratorio (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:52:00 minutes | 1,82 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Accent
It was a sensational find in many respects when Gunar Letzbor discovered the Passion by the composer and Augustinian canon Franz Joseph Aumann in the archives of St Florian’s Abbey (near Linz, Austria) and other monasteries.
This oratorio de Passione Domini nostri Jesu Christi was not only a highly expressive work from the early classical period, but also, contrary to what the Latin title might suggest, the only known surviving Catholic Passion composition in German.
The work, which lasts around two hours, does not recount the Passion of Christ as is usually the case; instead, its atmospheric images and reflections focus on the emotional coping with the incomprehensible – Jesus’ death on the cross.
The Aumann Passion was probably performed on Good Friday in St Florian’s Abbey. It’s music is reminiscent of compositions by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach or Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross. Daring harmonic turns repeatedly heighten the expression, impressive choral movements sung by the four soloists and complex fugues make the suffering of Christ and the grief of the faithful sound impressive.
Gunar Letzbor and Ars Antiqua Austria are joined by soloists Alois Muhlbacher, Markus Miesenberger and Alexandre Baldo for this new recording.
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Gunar Letzbor, Ars Antiqua Austria – Biber: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-8, C. 138-145 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:47:13 minutes | 1,97 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Pan Classics
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.
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Alois Mühlbacher, Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor – Cantate Per Contralto Con Violini (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:16 minutes | 1004 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
Under the rule of the enlightened Emperor Joseph I, many composers from the north of Italy took up appointments in Vienna. Antonio Bononcini was one of the most progressive composers of his time. We present here three cantatas by Bononcini from 1706. They were most probably first presented in musical academies. His amorous chamber cantatas captivate through their intimate, timeless beauty. The sensual violins engage in an entertaining competition with the longing, dreamy lines of the alto voice. The cantatas recorded here all concern themselves with the sorrows and longings of love for a distant partner.
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Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor – Christoph Graupner – “Chalumeaux” – Concertos, Ouvertures & Sonatas (2015)
DSF Stereo DSD64, 1 bit/2,82 MHz | Time – 01:14:25 minutes | 2,94 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
If people are innocent of the name of Christoph Graupner in Vienna or anywhere else in Austria this should be neither a surprise nor anything to be ashamed of, because the sphere of influence of this contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Joseph Fux was in faraway Darmstadt, a small residence capital of the landgrave in Hesse about twenty miles south of Frankfurt. What is more, Graupner never visited Vienna in his life. Graupner’s employer Ernst Ludwig was an opera enthusiast; after becoming acquainted with the young harpsichordist and composer Graupner – who had received his musical education in Leipzig – some time in the period from autumn 1706 and 1708 at the Hamburg Gänsemarkt Opera House, Ernst Ludwig appointed him Kapellmeister in Darmstadt in 1709. The court household there was that of a comparatively small landgrave, Protestant in inclination – one of the numerous German principalities in the German Lands. But in his ambition for prestige and luxurious pastimes – particularly hunting – the Darmstadt regent by no means took second place even to the pre-eminent courts. Thus in 1723, he secured Graupner’s presence in Darmstadt for life by a generous rise in salary, which made the court Kapellmeister the best paid orchestra director of his time and simultaneously stopped Graupner from taking off to Leipzig, where he had been offered the post of Thomaskantor, the choirmaster of St Thomas’s. Another thirty-seven years were to pass in the service of the Darmstadt landgrave before Graupner eventually died in 1760; he had gone blind, thus in the last six years of his life could no longer actively direct the fortunes of the orchestra.
Read more![Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor - Ostinato (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2023/02/09/wi02oenyomeia_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor – Ostinato (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:23 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Pan Classics
In music, “ostinato” (Latin obstinatus: “obstinate”) is a repeated sequence of notes. A constantly repeated bass motif is perfect for improvisation – which in turn inspired many Baroque composers to write numerous masterpieces. Gunar Letzbor has put together a splendid programme from this fund of pieces, including the well-known Ciaconnas by Bertali and Schmelzer and two ostinato-dominated sonatas by the violin virtuoso Biber, but also works by lesser-known composers such as Georg Arnold, Heinrich Döbel and Johann Josef Vilsmayr.
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Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor – Amandus Ivanschiz: Chamber Music at the Abbey of Lambach (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 59:47 minutes | 567 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
Amandus Ivanschiz was baptised Matthias Leopold Ivanschiz on 24 December 1727 in the Austrian city of Wiener Neustadt. As early as 1742, at the age of fifteen, Matthias decided to join the Pauline Order and took the name Amandus. On 25 December 1743 Amandus took his vows and was then sent to Maria Trost and Wiener Neustadt to study for the priesthood.
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Antonio Vivaldi – The four Seasons – Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor (2016)
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC (tracks) 5.1 Surround 24 bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 59:34 minutes | 7,55 GB
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 59:34 minutes | 3,12 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Booklet, Front Cover | Source: spiritofturtle.com | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
Recorded: Sommerrefektorium St. Florian, Austria, 21st – 24th April 2016
Gunar Letzbor: “It is almost impossible nowadays to perform Vivaldi’s music without any preconceptions, even if one engages with it only rarely. Vivaldi’s sound is ubiquitous. Or is that perhaps the sound of only a few works from his rich oeuvre? When I played through “La Cetra” for the first time on the violin, I found some typical Vivaldi-isms which I really cannot stand. At the same time, however, I was surprised to find a remarkable body of new features waiting to be discovered. One just must not succumb to the temptation of immediately putting the familiar Vivaldi stamp onto everything. I have, in the meantime, formed an even greater friendship with Vivaldi. There is so much to discover amongst his works, away from mainstream sounds. This recording and its preparation: practising in peace and quiet; trying out sounds; receiving and discarding ideas; taking in the texts; rediscovering melodies and, if possible, never listening to any Vivaldi recordings.” (more…)
Read more![Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor - Biber: Sonatae Tam Aris Quam Aulis Servientes (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/352.8kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/03/0608917267624_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor – Biber: Sonatae Tam Aris Quam Aulis Servientes (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/352.8 kHz | Time – 01:09:06 minutes | 3,53 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
Austrian Baroque music takes centre stage in the repertoire of this unusual Baroque ensemble. The music performed at the imperial court in Vienna at this time was initially heavily influenced by the music of Italy, later by that of France; Spanish court ceremonial also had important artistic effects in Vienna. The typical Austrian sound of this era was characterised by the impact of its many royal domains. The political and societal boundaries of Baroque Austria stretched much further than nowadays. Elements of Slavic, Hungarian and Alpine folk music styles had lasting effects on art music, making up its specific sound. The title “Sonatae tam aris quam aulis servientes” suggests that these works can be used for both sacred and secular purposes. They represent the first of several collections of pieces for polyphonic instrumental ensembles (published in 1676, 1680 and 1682) in which Biber demonstrated his mastery in handling the most important forms of instrumental music of his time.
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![Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor - Biber: Fidicium Sacro-Profanum (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/352.8kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/03/0608917257526_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor – Biber: Fidicium Sacro-Profanum (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/352.8 kHz | Time – 47:01 minutes | 3,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
H.I.F. Biber: a genius, whose life story is for the most part unresearched, a violin virtuoso who raised the technique of violin playing in Austria to an incredibly high level, a man of incredible powers of imagination and the courage to venture on abstraction. The complexity of his work is astonishing, his oeuvre encompasses a range from richly orchestrated church music, artfully elaborated chamber music, to virtuoso music for his personal solo instrument, the violin.
In his collection Fidicinium Sacro-Profanum, Biber set new standards also in the field of string chamber music. In the first part the master composes for five-part string ensemble: 2 violins, 2 violas, violone and basso continuo were established at his time as the standard ensemble in Austrian cultural circles. In a richly coloured, five-part setting, Biber artfully weaves a polyphonic texture that allows one or more parts to alternate and come to the fore. In the second part of this colletion he dispenses with the five-part arrangement hitherto predominant in Austria. He compensates for the luxury of sound by augmenting the flexibility of the four individual parts.
Perhaps it is simply the humility and clear, alert ear of all the musicians in the ensemble in confrontation with the special qualities of Biber’s chamber music that convey to the audience the qualities of the master’s musical message!
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Ars Antiqua Austria & Gunar Letzbor – Rupert Ignaz Mayr: Psalms from Sacri Concentus 1681 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 59:10 minutes | 555 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
Ars Antiqua Austria and Gunar Letzbor present a programme of outstanding sacred music by Rupert Ignaz Mayr (1646-1712) for voice, virtuoso solo violin and basso continuo, including five world premiere recordings.
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Ars Antiqua Austria & Gunar Letzbor – Chamber Music in the Abbey of St. Florian (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:09:30 minutes | 654 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
New discoveries from Gunar Lezbor and his St. Florian Abbey archive. Franz Josef Aumann (1728-1797) was a free and innovative composer. His chamber music is really worth exploring as they provide a lively and interesting listening experience.
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