A wonderful, intense and unforgettable time in Ossiach, in the south of Austria, began with such a morning view. Ossiach is a small village with a large monastery and an even larger and very well-known summer festival, the Carinthian Summer.
My career actually began in Ossiach – in 1988 I was invited by the then festival director Dr. Gerda Fröhlich to a sonata matinee as part of her “Young Talents” cycle. The program included one of Mozart’s two-movement sonatas, the Cesar Franck Sonata and Schubert’s Fantasy in C major.
This time it was not the Carinthian Summer, but the Oesterreichische Nationalbank that made this wonderful stay at this very special place possible for me. As part of their “Valuable Sounds” project, a CD is recorded every year with instruments from their collection and their players in order to archive the sound of their instruments and also as a Christmas present for their customers.
After Christmas I will be able to buy back the master tape and thus all the rights – a more than generous gesture from the OeNB. A big thank you to my longstanding and loyal supporters!
For my CD, the newly built, acoustically exceptional Alban Berg Hall was chosen as the recording venue! I was accompanied by the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra and Martin Kerschbaum was at my side as conductor.
The program of the CD corresponds to my musical background:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz von Suppe, Franz Lehár and Kurt Schwertsik
The first day began with the violin concerto by Kurt Schwertsik http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Schwertsik
When I think of Kurt Schwertsik, I also think of Joseph Haydn – not stylistically, of course! Schwertsik has his very own musical language, but it is his intelligent humor in his music that reminds me so much of Haydn!
The piece is in five movements. The opening and closing movements bracket the middle movements, so to speak, which are clearly distinguished from the outer movements by their different, colorful moods. It is the charming variety of Schwertsik’s music that is enchanting! But there is also the challenging side – the one that could make you sweat if you didn’t have such great colleagues at your side….
I’ll start with Martin Kerschbaum – he was a fantastic musical accompanist! Martin’s precision, his stability and his conducting clarity made this difficult piece incredibly easy for me and my orchestra colleagues! His musical and human empathy will be praised at length!
(here during a “break rehearsal” to go through the upcoming passages together again…)
My great thanks go to my colleagues in the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra, who created a working atmosphere not only at the highest musical level, but also at such an exceptionally high human level, which enabled me to free myself from any pressure, from any tension, and to give myself completely to the joy of my heart! THANK YOU!
My special thanks also go to the chief conductor of the orchestra, Alexander Soddy, who generously made his time available for a Schwertsik pre-rehearsal!
I will introduce the “invisible man in the background”, the “incorruptible voice from the loudspeaker”, my recording manager in detail in the next blog entry. He’s the one you can’t hear, but whose ear, whose capacity, whose love of music and musicians makes him the real protagonist of this project! I’m really looking forward to writing about this special person!
We ended the first day of recording satisfied and well tired with a delicious meal and a good glass of Austrian wine in our beautiful accommodation, the “Stiftschmiede”.
Day two and three will follow shortly!
All the best and see you soon,
Birgit
