Salut! Baroque : "Viennese Virtuosi" November 11, 2005

Including music by Biber, Schmelzer, Fux and Vivaldi

Long before Mozart, Vienna in the 17th century was already a first-rate musical centre due to the passionate enthusiasm for music by a handful of Habsburg emperors who used the finest musicians to support their visions of grandeur. Vienna had always been a melting pot of the most varied styles and leading musical figures from every centre gathered here on what was to some extent neutral ground. And thanks to Vienna’s closeness to the Slavic and Magyar worlds, Eastern musical traditions were absorbed into the mix, together with Hungarian, Austrian and Bohemian folk music. Each style ultimately influenced and enhanced the others so that by the time our virtuosi – Biber, Schmelzer & Fux – entered the fray, a recognizable Austrian style had made a home for itself, albeit one that was primarily superimposed over an Italian form. It is not surprising then, that this was the final resting place for Antonio Vivaldi.