Franz Xaver Richter: Four Symphonies L'Orfeo Barockorchester & Michi Gaigg

• Franz Xaver Richter (1709 - 1789): Sinfonia con fuga in G minor:
• 1 Richter: Sinfonia con fuga in G minor: Adagio – Fuga – Adagio – Fuga da capo 13:05
• 2 Richter: Sinfonia con fuga in G minor: Andante 05:14
• 3 Richter: Sinfonia con fuga in G minor: Presto 01:48
• Symphony in B flat major:
• 4 Richter: Symphony in B flat major: Allegro assai 04:45
• 5 Richter: Symphony in B flat major: Andante 03:02
• 6 Richter: Symphony in B flat major: La Confusione 02:47
• Symphony in D minor, Op. 3 No. 4:
• 7 Richter: Symphony in D minor, Op. 3 No. 4: Allegro con spirito 03:55
• 8 Richter: Symphony in D minor, Op. 3 No. 4: Andante 05:33
• 9 Richter: Symphony in D minor, Op. 3 No. 4: Allegro di molto 04:02
• Symphony in G major, Op. 4 No. 6:
• 10 Richter: Symphony in G major, Op. 4 No. 6: Allegro con brio 04:58
• 11 Richter: Symphony in G major, Op. 4 No. 6: Andantino 04:37
• 12 Richter: Symphony in G major, Op. 4 No. 6: Fuga. Rincontro 04:42
• Total Runtime 58:28

Info for Franz Xaver Richter: Four Symphonies

Alongside Johann Stamitz, Franz Xaver Richter was one of the driving forces behind the emergence of the so-called Mannheim School and the renowned court orchestra of Elector Carl Theodor of the Palatinate. In contrast to his equally influential colleagues, he represented the more reserved type of composer, clearly rooted in Baroque music, which may have hindered his own career but certainly did not damage the reputation of this epoch-making circle of musicians. As a result, this portrait presents us with an astonishingly broad spectrum of musical expression: there is no shortage of contrapuntal composition, lively gallantry, or examples of subtle genre pieces that indulge in capricious playfulness under programmatic headings – ensuring all kinds of entertainment.

L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra
Michi Gaigg, conductor

L’Orfeo Barockorchester
For 30 years now the L’Orfeo Barockorchester ranges among the most prominent players on the Early Music stage. According to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung the international ensemble, directed by its founder Michi Gaigg, boasts uniqueness that sets it apart from any globalized uniformity. This quality is based on widely diverse musical synergies. A spirited approach, a sense of continuity, healthy dynamics in the ensemble and an inquisitive nature are the ingredients for Michi Gaigg’s recipe. Against this background she creates her own colourful, sensual, temperamental and unmistakable handwriting.

L’Orfeo now boasts an extensive discography (counting more than 40 CD’s up to date) of some world premieres and opera productions which received international awards by BBC Music Magazine, Diapason, Gramophone, Forbes, Pizzicato (“Supersonic Award”), Le Monde de la Musique, Fono Forum, Radio Österreich 1 (“Pasticcio Prize”) as well as the German Music Award “Echo Klassik” and “Opus Klassik”. In 2021, celebrating the 25th anniversary, the production of the complete symphonies and symphonic fragments by Schubert was released. This is the current showpiece in L’Orfeo’s many-faceted repertoire reaching from the French, German and Austrian Baroque to the Sinfonia of the Mannheim School, First Viennese School and the early Romantics.

L’Orfeo also leaves its mark as an opera orchestra, recently with Joseph Haydn’s “Turkish” opera L’incontro improvviso and the Mozart disc “From Zero to Hero” with tenor Daniel Behle. Further rarities and master works include operas by George Frideric Handel, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Georg Anton Benda, Christoph Willibald Gluck as well as a trilogy of early works by Gioachino Rossini. The most significant festivals and venues in recent times have been Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, MDR Summer Festival, Handel Festival Halle, Early Music Festival Regensburg, International Baroque Festival Melk, Herbstgold Festival Eisenstadt, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg & Hohenems, EXPO 2015 Milano, Festival Bach de Lausanne, Mozart Festival Würzburg, Gluck Opera Festival Nürnberg, Cologne Early Music Festival, Palau de la Música Catalana Barcelona, Gala Concert in the Vatican City (Sixtine Chapel), Musikverein Wien, Wiener Konzerthaus, Theater an der Wien, Brucknerhaus Linz, etc., tours of France, Spain, South Africa and Namibia.

The L’Orfeo Barockorchester conducted by Michi Gaigg performed its very successful debut at the renowned Elbphilharmonie Hamburg in 2019 (re-invitation 2022).

Education: Euridice Barockorchester of the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz. An incentive of L’Orfeo: members of L’Orfeo coach the students during sectional rehearsals and perform with the students.

Michi Gaigg
was born in Schörfling at the Attersee, Austria (Salzkammergut). She was strongly influenced by Nikolaus Harnoncourt during her violin studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum and subsequently continued studies of the Baroque violin with Ingrid Seifert and Sigiswald Kuijken. Before founding her own Baroque orchestra L’Arpa Festante Munich in 1983 (direction until 1995) Michi Gaigg was a member of internationally acclaimed ensembles and worked together with Frans Brüggen, Alan Curtis, Christopher Hogwood, René Jacobs, Ton Koopman and Hermann Max.

In 1996 she founded the L’Orfeo Barockorchester together with the recorder and oboe player Carin van Heerden. Under Michi Gaigg’s direction the orchestra has established itself as one of the leading ensembles in historically informed performance practice and has repeatedly been awarded various prizes for its CD recordings (almost 50 productions so far) by BBC Music Magazine, Diapason, Gramophone, Pizzicato (“Supersonic Award”), Le Monde de la Musique, Fono Forum, Radio Österreich 1 (“Pasticcio Prize”) as well as the German Music Awards “Echo Klassik” and “Opus Klassik”.

In 2021 an acclaimed production of the complete symphonies and symphonic fragments by Schubert was released.

Michi Gaigg has a strong affinity for French Baroque music. The innovative and visionary strength of the music, especially the works by Jean-Philippe Rameau, is fertile soil for her interpretation of operas and orchestral repertoire from the pre-Classical era and the First Viennese School. This is the repertoire with which Michi Gaigg and the L’Orfeo Barockorchester create press and audience furore time and again. Her approach to the early Romantics Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn Bartoldy also invites new listening experiences.

In addition to her extensive concert activities as violinist and conductor Michi Gaigg first taught at the Conservatoire National de Strasbourg and from 1994-2017 at the Institute for Early Music at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. She was the artistic director for 22 years (up to 2024) of the donauFESTWOCHEN im Strudengau, a festival for Early and Contemporary music, for which she was awarded the Artists’ Award for Stage Performance and the Medal for Cultural Achievements of the province of Upper Austria. Michi Gaigg was additionally awarded the Heinrich-Gleissner-Prize (2016) and the Honorary Art Prize (2020).

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