Accordato - Habsburg Violin Music

The violinist Gunar Letzbor is an established specialist in performing Austrian baroque music; in particular, he has especially intensively grappled with works of Biber, Muffat and Schmelzer, to name three examples. In so doing, he is constantly searching for a specifically Austrian baroque string sound. Manuscript XIV 726 of the Minoritenkonvent in Vienna is one of the most important sources of Austrian baroque music. From the over hundred sonatas contained in it, Gunar Letzbor has compiled the series ""ex Vienna"" consisting of three programmes which shed light on various aspects of Austrian violin music. On this, the third and final CD of the series Accordato Gunar Letzbor has recorded violin works that are attributed to a particular author and that do not require any detuning of the violin (scordatura). A violin school north of the Alps was founded by Schmelzer, Bertali and Biber that was of a far higher standard, in many respects, than was found elsewhere in the world. They used the high range on the fingerboard almost as a matter of course; players experimented with special bowings and delighted in polyphonic playing on the violin. These musicians conceived tone painting and especially loved rapid playing that could make a strong artistic impression on the listeners.