Luca Pianca / Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra / Vittorio Ghielmi LE SECRET DE MONSIEUR MARAIS

                                               LE SECRET DE MONSIEUR MARAIS

Dorothee Oberlinger / Vittorio Ghielmi THE PASSION OF MUSICK

England in the 17th century was a country marked by civil war, a war fought between Crown and Parliament, with Catholic royalists ranged against Puritan republicans. These were politically turbulent times and yet from a musical point of view it was an astonishingly fruitful period. In general the fine arts suffered badly at least in the public arena and above all in the 1650s, when the Stuart dynasty was overthrown by the austere regime of the self-styled Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. But this public neglect was more than made up for by the way in which chamber music flourished in the salons of well-to-do burghers and of members of the nobility. Writing in 1706, the English lawyer, biographer and music theorist Roger North noted that “many chose rather to fiddle at home, than to goe out, and be knockt on the head abroad”. The preferred instruments for this “private Musicke” were the harp, various types of recorder and, last but not least, the viol. From the Renaissance onwards, viols had been built in families from the bass to the soprano register, and they tended to be played as a group in the form of a “consort”. By the first half of the 16th century a consort of recorders is known to have existed at the court of Henry VIII. But in England there was also a great fondness for viols and especially for the typically English lyra viol, which, with its special tuning, was well suited to playing chords. As the writer on music Thomas Mace observed in 1676, with such an instrument “you have a Ready Entertainment for the Greatest Prince in the World”.

Dorothee Oberlinger / Ensemble 1700 TELEMANN Suite in A minor & Double Concertos

Download Suite in A minor & Double Concertos

Dorothee Oberlinger / Ensemble 1700 TELEMANN

Born in 1969 in Aachen, Dorothee Oberlinger studied recorder in Cologne, Amsterdam and Milan. After successfully making her debut in 1997 by winning the first Price in the international competition SRP / Moeck UK in London's Wigmore Hall, Dorothee Oberlinger has been a regular guest at major festivals and concert series throughout Europe, America and Asia.

As a soloist, she plays with the Ensemble 1700, founded by her in 2002, as well as with renowned baroque ensembles and orchestras such as the Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca, Musica Antiqua Cologne, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, London Baroque, the Academy of Ancient Music or Zefiro.

As "Instrumentalist of the Year 2008", she was awarded the prestigious German "Echo" music award award for her CD recording "Italian Sonatas", followed by an ECHO Klassik for her album "Flauto Veneziano" in 2013. In addition to her intensive involvement with the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, Dorothee Oberlinger is still devoted to contemporary music, thus contributing to the latest CD "Touch" of the Swiss pop duo 'Yello'. 

Since 2004, Dorothee Oberlinger is professor at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg, where she is also heading the Institute for Early Music. Since 2009, she is the artistic director of the traditional Arolsen Baroque Festival.