Beethoven - Schubert - Voříšek: Works for Cello and Fortepiano Ursina Maria Braun & Florian Birsak

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827): 7 Variations on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen', WoO 46:
• 1 Beethoven: 7 Variations on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen', WoO 46 09:49
• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): Schwanengesang, D. 957:
• 2 Schubert: Schwanengesang, D. 957: Die Taubenpost (Arr. For Cello and Piano by Leopold Jansa) 04:16
• Jan Václav Voříšek (1791 - 1825): Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9:
• 3 Voříšek: Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9: I. Introduzione 04:18
• 4 Voříšek: Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9: II. Thema 00:52
• 5 Voříšek: Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9: III. Variation 1 00:54
• 6 Voříšek: Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9: IV. Variation 2 00:40
• 7 Voříšek: Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9: V. Variation 3 00:57
• 8 Voříšek: Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9: VI. Variation 4 02:20
• 9 Voříšek: Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9: VII. Variation 5 01:32
• 10 Voříšek: Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9: VIII. Variation 6 01:28
• 11 Voříšek: Variations for Cello and Piano, Op. 9: IX. Finale 03:04
• Franz Schubert: An die Musik, Op. 88/4, D. 547 (Arr. For Cello and Piano by Leopold Jansa):
• 12 Schubert: An die Musik, Op. 88/4, D. 547 (Arr. For Cello and Piano by Leopold Jansa) 02:58
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69:
• 13 Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69: I. Allegro ma non Tanto 12:07
• 14 Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69: II. Scherzo. Allegro Molto 05:03
• 15 Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69: III. Adagio Cantabile 01:40
• 16 Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69: IV. Allegro Vivace 07:06
• Franz Schubert: Schwanengesang, D. 957:
• 17 Schubert: Schwanengesang, D. 957: Abschied (Arr. For Cello and Piano by Leopold Jansa) 03:37
• 18 Schubert: Schwanengesang, D. 957: Ständchen (Arr. For Cello and Piano by August Lindner) 05:23
• Total Runtime 01:08:04

Info for Beethoven - Schubert - Voříšek: Works for Cello and Fortepiano

Musical individuality rather than symbiotic fusion: on historical instruments, but with the greatest expressive freedom, the musical details of Beethoven, Schubert, and Voříšek's works from early-nineteenth-century Vienna speak directly to the listener.

In the early nineteenth century, the house concert was the most common form of musical performance in Vienna. Professionals featured alongside aristocratic music lovers and ambitious bourgeois amateur musicians, and composers presented their works. While Beethoven's admirers were largely counted among the Austrian and Bohemian nobility, Schubert's circle tended to consist of literati, artists, and state officials who saw the salon as a protected space where both aesthetic and political debates could be held.

Ursina Maria Braun is familiar with unusual programmes: together with actor Thomas Loibl, she recently realised a Kafka project, as a composer she writes sophisticated chamber music, and as a soloist she masters a wide repertoire from Baroque to contemporary music. With her cello by the early-nineteenth-century Neapolitan violin maker Lorenzo Ventapane - an instrument that could well have been found in Vienna around 1830 - and the fortepiano of her piano partner Florian Birsak - a replica of a Jakob Bertsche instrument from ca. 1810 - the two musicians create a Romantic original sound in which both retain their individuality as soloists.

Ursina Maria Braun, cello
Florian Birsak, piano

Ursina Maria Braun
musical career is characterised by its enormous versatility. A prizewinner of the Leipzig Bach Competition, she is active as a soloist and chamber musician as well as a solo cellist in renowned ensembles, and is also a sought-after composer.

She began her training as a junior student with Thomas Grossenbacher at the Zurich University of the Arts, where she also received composition lessons from Andreas Nick. Her Bachelor's and Master's studies with Clemens Hagen and Heinrich Schiff then took her to the Mozarteum University Salzburg and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Additional studies with Reinhard Goebel deepened her interest in historical performance practice, which she has made an essential focus of her work.

During her studies, Ursina Maria Braun received numerous awards, including first prize at the international CONCORSO 12 Enrico Mainardi in 2012, the study award of the Migros Kulturprozent in 2016, and second prize and the audience prize at the International Bach Competition Leipzig. During the coronavirus pandemic, she initiated an innovative concert series on the Kapuzinerberg in Salzburg and won second prize at the Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges in 2021.

With her chamber music partners such as Kit Armstrong, Denes Varjon, Pietro de Maria, Florian Birsak, Reinhard Goebel, Julian Prégardien, Dmitry Smirnov, Lorenza Borrani, Alfredo Bernardini, Franziska Hölscher, Erich Höbarth, and Dorothea Oberlinger, she has performed at festivals such as Styriarte Graz, Carinthischer Sommer, Thüringer Bachwochen, Bachwochen Ansbach, Suoni delle Dolomiti, Stresa Festival, and Mittelfest and has already performed in concert halls such as the Wiener Musikverein, Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Wigmore Hall in London, and Konzerthaus Berlin. As principal cellist of the Concentus Musicus founded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, she is part of one of the most respected ensembles for historical performance practice. In addition, she performs as a principal cellist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

As a composer, Ursina Maria Braun receives commissions from the Musikpodium Zürich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Swiss Chamber Concerts, Azahar Ensemble, Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sinfonietta de Lausanne. The Salzburg-based cellist regularly passes on her enthusiasm for music in projects with students at the Zurich University of the Arts, the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, and the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana and leads a cello class at the Tirolean State Conservatory in Innsbruck.

Florian Birsaks
Florian's first musical steps took him through the sound world of the Baroque. As a child, he exclusively played the harpsichord and clavichord, and he still regards the music from Frescobaldi to Bach as his musical home.

Birsak first began his training in his native city of Salzburg and continued it at the University of Music and Theatre Munich. He received important inspiration for his artistic maturation from formative personalities such as Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Kenneth Gilbert, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Prizes followed at international competitions such as the Festival of Flanders in Bruges and the Mozart Competition in Salzburg. In 2003, together with the cellist Isolde Hayer, he received the August Everding Prize of the Munich Concert Society.

An essential part of his musical and scholarly interest lies in the appropriate execution of the figured bass in all its stylistic facets. As a soloist and chamber musician, Birsak has performed in ensembles such as the Camerata Salzburg, Hofkapelle München, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, L’Orfeo Barockorchester, Zefiro Barockorchester, Armonico Tributo, Oman Consort, Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Bern, and Concentus Musicus Wien under conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, Sigiswald Kuijken, Giovanni Antonini, Christopher Hogwood, Ivor Bolton, Thomas Hengelbrock, and many others.

Recently, Florian Birsak has increasingly focused on solo performance as well as on his own chamber music projects with selected programmatic objectives. In 2013, he was appointed professor of harpsichord at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, and he also serves as acting head of the department of Early Music and initiated and directed the “Innsbruck Baroque” academy, which offered master classes and workshops in the field of historical performance practice from 2014 to 2019. In 2021, he joined the Baroque programme of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and has also led a fortepiano class at the Mozarteum Salzburg since 2023.

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