Berliner Barock Solisten

The Berliner Barock Solisten were founded in 1995 by members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and renowned performers of early music in Berlin to play works of the 17th and 18th centuries in a stylistically appropriate and historically informed manner. Although they play on modern or modernized instruments, the result is very close to the original sound. Violinist Rainer Kussmaul, a violinist with international experience in Baroque music who died in 2017, served as artistic director for the first 15 years of the ensemble’s existence. Since 2010, their concerts have been performed under an array of ­different conductors, such as Bernhard Forck, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Gottfried von der Goltz, Daniel Hope, Daishin Kashimoto, and Reinhard Goebel. One focus is on works that have been unjustly forgotten, especially compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann. The Berliner Barock Solisten have performed throughout Europe, the USA, and Asia with such singers as Christine Schäfer, Anne Sofie von Otter, Julia Lezhneva, and Dorothea Röschmann. Actors Armin Mueller-Stahl and Burghart Klaussner have appeared as narrators, while Andreas Staier, Kristian ­Bezuidenhout, and Igor Levit have played piano or harpsichord with the ensemble. ­Numerous CDs document the work of the Berliner Barock Solisten: the ensemble received the coveted Grammy Award in 2005 for its recording of Bach cantatas with Thomas Quasthoff; its accounts of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos with Reinhard Goebel and of the Abel Cello Concertos with Bruno Delepelaire were awarded the Opus Klassik, while the International Classical Music Award was given to its recording of Bach Violin Concertos with Frank Peter Zimmermann.

Lucerne Festival debut on 8 September 2003 in a program of works by Bach, Telemann, Albinoni, and Vivaldi.

March 2024