EnsembleDie Wiener

Viennese music has its opulent appeal in full orchestral scoring as well. Its core, however, emerges in chamber music. Reducing the music to a handful of instruments is not a diminution here, it is a concentration.

It was this conviction that led the Vienna Philharmonic violinist Günter Seifert to found Ensemble Die Wiener in 2008. It brings together current and former members of the Vienna Philharmonic with musicians from other leading Viennese orchestras.

At the centre of the repertoire stands Viennese music in all its breadth. Alongside the well-known works, this means above all those gems by numerous composers that are rarely heard today, brought back into the limelight in chamber scoring.

Joint appearances with singers such as Leo Nucci, Ildikó Raimondi, Rebecca Nelsen, Valentina Naforniţă, Olga Bezsmertna and Daniela Fally give the programmes a special character.

The ensemble consists of Günter Seifert (violin and direction), Milan Šetena and Michael Strasser (violin), Ricardo Bru (cello), Josef Pitzek (double bass), Johann Hindler (clarinet), Wolfgang Tomböck, Josef Reif and Boris Pelikan (horn) and Günter Federsel.

On CD the ensemble can be heard on “A Tribute to Vienna” with Daniela Fally and on “Charmantes Wien”, among others.