Chamber orchestras are surrounded by the whiff of being the poor man’s symphony orchestra, at least in the eyes of some followers of the symphony orchestra’s. From the perspective of the concert-goer of the philharmonic big events, the symphony orchestra to the chamber orchestra behaves like a three-star temple to the hot dog stand. However, one who is lucky enough to live in a community, such as Munich or Bremen, to name only two residences of a chamber orchestra with the best reputation, know what he has at the "hot dog stand" compared to the "three-star temple", namely an always vivid, highly committed ensemble of outstanding musicians who are able to present their enthusiastic audience with an incredibly flexible presentation of all musical styles from the old to the new music in an interpretative quality that makes many of the highly acclaimed symphony orchestras look quite old. And once you have heard the symphonic repertoire from Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven to Brahms lucidly performed by a small orchestra able to shed the adequate portion of light to otherwise hidden details of the composition, it is almost no longer possible to return to the fat and inevitable smearing gait of the full-scale symphony orchestra.
Word has gotten around not at least via CDs that also Switzerland is home to chamber orchestras of international renown, such as the chamber orchestras of Zurich, Lausanne and Basel. The Chamber Orchestra of Basel, founded in 1984 by graduates from various Swiss colleges of music, which predecessor was the Basel Chamber Orchestra led by Paul Sacher to world fame, and which plays early music on baroque instruments, renounces a firm chief executive. Currently, the orchestra is headed by its concertmaster, Julia Schröder, who was born in a Lower Bavarian musician family, and who is also a soloist on the album Bologna 1666.
The 350th year of foundation of the Accademia Filarmonica, which is based in the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, was the occasion to produce this album. As in numerous other Italian cities, during the baroque period in Bologna all kinds of courtly music were performed, especially in the Basilica of San Petronio, not only by an own professional orchestra but also composed within the city wall. The names of the Bolognese baroque composers, such as Giuseppe Torelli, Girolamo Nicolò Laurenti, Giacomo Antonio Perti, Lorenzo Gaetano Zavateri, are nowadays known more or less only to specialists of baroque music. The album Bologna 1666 almost triumphantly tells of the fact that this unfortunate situation has nothing at all to do with the quality of those compositions. Particularly the violin concerto by Giuseppe Torelli virtuously put into the spotlight by the soloist and the symphonies of the masses and oratorios speak for themselves. Even the less original compositions based on Corelli and Vivaldi are captivating with freshness and vitality mirroring southern joie de vivre immersed into these compositions by the chamber orchestra from Basel, which is almost bursting with playfulness, and reflects the southern joy of life in color.
Very rarely you meet an album, which combines similar grandiose music making of all parties with a lucid recording technique, which in the format of a high-resolution download leaves the listener simply speechless with enthusiasm. Anyone who, after the enjoyment of this album, should continue to believe that the chamber orchestra is the poor man's symphony orchestra, cannot be helped.
Ewa Miribung, violin
Kammerorchester Basel
Julia Schröder, violin, conductor