Innsbruck Festival of Early Music

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Ambras Castle, one of the historical venues of the Innsbruck Festival Weeks.

The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music is a festival with music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical periods in historically informed performance practice . The Innsbruck Festival Weeks have been held annually in July and August in historical venues in Innsbruck and the surrounding area since 1976 and are introduced by the Ambras Castle Concerts.

history

Innsbruck is a center of early music. In the Renaissance and Baroque periods , masters such as Paul Hofhaimer , Heinrich Isaac and Pietro Antonio Cesti stayed as court musicians in the Alpine city. Magnificent opera performances took place in the first Comedihaus , the first free-standing theater in the German-speaking area. The then Innsbruck instrumental ensemble later formed the regular line-up of the famous pre-classical Mannheim orchestra .

In the middle of the 20th century the tradition was continued and the maintenance of early music in halls and churches was resumed. In 1963, to celebrate Tyrol's 600-year membership in Austria, the Innsbruck musician Otto Ulf (1907–1993) initiated the first “Ambras Palace Concert ” together with Lilly von Sauter , curator of the collections of the Art History Museum at Ambras Castle . The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music has been dedicated to cultivating Renaissance and Baroque music since 1976, making it the oldest festival of its kind still in existence. The focus is on baroque operas, alongside concerts at historical sites. In 2010 the annual “ International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera Pietro Antonio Cesti ” was launched, which brings young singers from all over the world to Innsbruck.

Among the conductors performing here were Rinaldo Alessandrini , Giovanni Antonini , Howard Arman , Fabio Biondi , Attilio Cremonesi , Alan Curtis , Alessandro De Marchi , John Eliot Gardiner , Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Thomas Hengelbrock , René Jacobs , Konrad Junghänel , Sigiswald Kuijken , Hans-Martin Linde , Charles Medlam , Eduard Melkus , Lars Ulrik Mortensen , Christina Pluhar , Christophe Rousset and Jordi Savall . Among the singers are Jennifer Larmore and numerous countertenors such as René Jacobs, Derek Lee Ragin and Dominique Visse and David Hansen .

Since 2010 the Italian conductor and harpsichordist Alessandro De Marchi has been the artistic director of the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, only part of the originally planned program could not be carried out at all of the usual venues under strict security conditions with significantly reduced audience numbers.

Opera productions and oratorios

Cesti competition

The  Cesti competition  is an international singing competition for young singers of  baroque operas , which has been held since 2010 as part of the Innsbruck Festival. It is named after the Italian composer  Pietro Antonio Cesti . The competition takes place annually in August and is divided into three rounds, the last being the public final with the ten best participants.

Performance venues

The Landestheater with advertising for the Festival of Early Music

Artistic Director

Web links