The Balthasar Neumann Choir, a professional ensemble of young soloists, was founded in 1991 by Thomas Hengelbrock. The heart of their artistic focus is music from the 16th to 18th centuries, but their repertoire can extend both to older and to more contemporary music, from Perotinus Magnus to György Ligeti. The singers regularly perform in productions of music theater: for example, they have collaborated with director Achim Freyer to perform a staged version of Bach’s B minor Mass at the Schwetzingen Festival and a new production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Vienna Festwochen. In 2005 the Choir made its Paris Opera debut in Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice in a staging by Pina Bausch which was revived in 2008 at the Greek amphitheater in Epidaurus and which will also be presented in 2012 in New York. For six years the Balthasar Neumann Choir had a residency at the Feldkirch Festival; since 2008 the ensemble has been a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival and, since 2010, at the Mozart Festival in Würzburg. In addition it frequently performs at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden: for example, in 2012 in a production of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore directed by Rolando Villazón. Along with Thomas Hengelbrock, such musicians as Ivor Bolton, René Jacobs, and András Schiff collaborate with the ensemble, which won the Cultural Award of the State of Baden-Württemberg in 2005.—Conductor, organist, and harpsichordist Detlef Bratschke, who prepared the singers for this concert, has served as Artistic Director of the Balthasar Neumann Choir since 1992. He is also founder and director of the Orlando di Lasso Ensemble, with whom he has recorded numerous CDs which have won such awards as the Diapason d’Or, the Cannes Classical Award, and the Echo Klassik.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 19 March 1997 in works by Antonio Lotti and Emanuele Rincon d’Astorga.
March 2012