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La Stagione Frankfurt

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La Stagione Frankfurt is a German ensemble of Baroque and classical music, adept at historically informed performance.

History

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The ensemble La Stagione Frankfurt was founded in 1988 by the German flautist and conductor Michael Schneider[1][2][3][4] around the members of the ensemble Camerata Köln.[5]

Schneider began his career as a solo flutist by winning a prize at the 1978 ARD International Competition in Munich.[1][6] In 1979, he was one of the founding members of the chamber music ensemble Camerata Köln.[1]

In 1988, he founded the ensemble La Stagione Frankfurt with which he recorded more than 100 discs in the genres of opera, oratorio and symphony, in the spirit of historically informed interpretation,[1] i.e. on period instruments (or copies of period instruments).

The ensemble calls itself "Die Klang-Gourmets", i.e. "The gourmets of sound"..[1]

The Stagione Frankfurt is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of Hesse.[4][7]

Repertoire

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An important aspect of the work of the ensemble La Stagione Frankfurt, whose motto is "Unerhörtes hörbar machen" (and "Bringing the undiscovered to your ears"), is the rediscovery of little-known works.[1][6][7][4]

Michael Schneider and his ensemble are therefore committed to the performance of little-known composers representative of the École préclassique de Vienne [fr] (Georg Matthias Monn), the Berlin School [fr] (Georg Anton Benda), the Mannheim school (Ignaz Holzbauer), the style galant (Karl Friedrich Abel) and sentimentalism (Joseph Martin Kraus), without neglecting Geminiani, Gluck, Hasse, Telemann, Scarlatti or Stradella.

Collaborations

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La Stagione works with many soloists such as Claron McFadden, Christoph Prégardien and his son Julian, Gotthold Schwarz, Simone Kermes, Nuria Rial, Emma Kirkby,[1][4] Barbara Schlick, Sandrine Piau and Klaus Mertens.

Critical reception

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For the Early Music Review[8]

La Stagione is a very impressive period-instrument-group. Their control of dynamics, phrasing and their sense of style are compelling. [...] Very impressing all round.

[9]

For the Bach Cantatas website, Michael Schneider's versatility on the one hand, and the musicians' artistic flexibility on the other, allow a convincing and authentic performance of a wide range of works from the baroque to the classical symphonies and the contemporary repertoire.[7]

Recordings

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La Stagione Frankfurt has made numerous recordings for the following labels cpo, Cappriccio, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Koch-Classics:[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g (in English) Website of the ensemble La Stagione Frankfurt
  2. ^ (in English) BBC Music
  3. ^ (in English) org/artist/8d8a644e-3466-497b-9988-96d3330bd382 Musicbrainz.org
  4. ^ a b c d e Booklet of the CD Harpsichord Concertos by Georg Anton Benda (CPO 777 088-2).
  5. ^ Alain Pâris, Le nouveau dictionnaire des interprètes, Robert Laffont, 2015.
  6. ^ a b (in English) Konzertdirektion Archived 2017-04-23 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ a b c Bach Cantatas
  8. ^ Early Music Review
  9. ^ Press review on Konzertdirektion.de[permanent dead link].
  10. ^ Official website
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