Festival Muri Barock 2025

This year’s Festival Muri Barock, organised by Murikultur and curated by my colleague Christoph Anzböck, took place from the 22th until the 24th of August in the monastery of Muri, famous for its majestic church with several 17th- and 18th century organs.

I had the pleasure to perform two concerts at this festival, both releated to our ensemble Il Fuoco eterno. This group, consisting of mainly Basel musicians, was founded some years ago and is dedicated to the exploration of Viennese music around 1700.
Il Fuoco Eterno opened the weekend full of concerts with a festive programme including a Serenata and a Concerto by Erlebach, concerti grossi by Muffat and Bach’s cantata BWV 75, “Gott is mein König”. This cantata is famous for its multi-choired orchestra setting which could be seen as a reminiscence of Early Baroque repertoire written for different instrument groups and played from different parts of the church.
In this case, the singers are accompanied by a violin consort with violone, a trio of two flutes and cello, two oboes and bassoon, three trumpets and timpani, and the organ.

I also gave a recital with some of the magnificent violin sonatas by Carlo Ambrogio Lonati from the manuscript 12 sonate per violino e basso continuo (presented to the Viennese court in 1701). These pieces are virtuosic and very idiomatically written for the violin, and even include some sonatas in scordatura, which is highly unusual for an Italian composer but a typical element of Austrian violin repertoire at the end of the 17th century. My continuo group consisted of Daniel Rosin, violoncello, and Christoph Anzböck, harpsichord.
Both concerts were recorded and filmed and we hope to publish audio and video material soon.