Freiburger Barockorchestra, Gottfried von der Goltz, Petra Müllejans, Anne Katharina Schreiber
Biography Freiburger Barockorchestra, Gottfried von der Goltz, Petra Müllejans, Anne Katharina Schreiber
The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (FBO)
is one of the leading ensembles of historically informed performance practice. For more than 30 years, it has shaped international musical life and set musical standards with its concerts and recordings.
The FBO was founded in 1987 by former students at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, mainly from the violin class of Rainer Kussmaul, later concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. The ensemble soon advanced to become one of the most sought-after orchestras with period instruments and achieved international renown. The FBO regularly performs in the most important international concert halls, including the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall London, Lincoln Center in New York, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Philharmonie de Paris. Concert tours take the ensemble to all continents, from South America to Australia. At the same time, the FBO maintains its own subscription series in Freiburg, Stuttgart and Berlin and is a guest at major music festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Tanglewood Festival in the USA and the Tage Alter Musik Innsbruck.
The orchestra's core repertoire is Baroque and Classical music, but it also frequently performs Romantic music, especially works by Mendelssohn and Schumann. In the spirit of historically informed performance practice, the FBO usually performs without a conductor, but for selected projects, e.g. opera performances or large-scale orchestral works, the ensemble works with renowned conductors such as Pablo Heras-Casado, Sir Simon Rattle or Teodor Currentzis. The FBO has a particularly close musical friendship with René Jacobs, with whom the ensemble devotes itself in particular to the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or oratorios from the Baroque and Classical periods.
The artistic directors of the FBO are Gottfried von der Goltz (violin) and Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), who took over this position from Petra Müllejans in 2017. Both artists also appear as soloists. Furthermore, the ensemble works with renowned instrumentalists and vocal soloists, including Isabelle Faust, Philippe Jaroussky, Christian Gerhaher, Alexander Melnikov, Andreas Staier, Jean-Guihen Queyras and many others.
The FBO's extraordinary musical diversity is documented on numerous recordings, which have been decorated with a multitude of prizes and awards, including several Echo Classic prizes, Grammy nominations and prizes from the German Record Critics.
The 2021/22 season will take the FBO on an extensive tour of Germany and the Netherlands with Bach's Christmas Oratorio together with the Nederlands Kamerkoor under the direction of Peter Dijkstra. The FBO also gives guest performances at the Haydneum Festival Budapest, as well as at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and the Philharmonie Paris. Under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle, the orchestra will perform Rameau's opera Hippolyte et Aricie at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin.
Gottfried von der Goltz
has made an internationally respected name for himself as a baroque violinist and as artistic director of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. As was customary in the 18th century, he conducts the FBO from the concertmaster's podium.
His repertoire ranges from the early Baroque to the musical present, illustrated by a broad discography that proves him to be an immensely versatile and flexible musician. Especially with CD recordings of the long unjustly forgotten music of the Dresden Baroque and the four Bach sons, Gottfried von der Goltz has earned a reputation among experts as a specialist.
In addition to his numerous appearances with the FBO, Gottfried von der Goltz works regularly (as guest conductor and as soloist) with the Berlin Baroque Soloists, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the hr Symphony Orchestra, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and other ensembles. For several years he was closely associated with the Norsk Barokkorkester as artistic director.
Gottfried von der Goltz also has a great passion for chamber music, which he pursues in various formations. As a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, he is a sought-after teacher of baroque and modern violin.
