Culture – world class between Renaissance and Baroque
Published on 18/2022 – Released October 11, 2022
Malles/Innsbruck – In September 2022, Marian Polin, who was born in Mals, was the first South Tyrolean to receive the prize at the seventh International Daniel Herz Organ Competition. Since this year he has been artistic director of the “Organ Art Vinschgau-Meran” festival together with Lukas Punter. But that’s not all: now he is the artistic director of the newly founded concert series “Innsbrucker Hofmusik”. A series that will not only make music lovers sit up and take notice. Because the music of Innsbruck’s heyday – from the Renaissance to the High Baroque; from the beginnings in the time of Emperor Maximilian around 1500 to the dissolution of court music around 1730 – not only offers a rich repertoire of sacred and secular music, but also shows the enormous connections between musicians from all over Europe. While Flemish musicians dominated the European music world until around 1600, provided that from 1600 onwards the Baroque and its musicians began to establish themselves in Italy. The House of Habsburg played a decisive role here due to its geographical location and the close family ties to houses such as Gonzaga or Este: Innsbruck, as the residence city, is the hub of Europe’s musical elite. It was only after the Second World War that this not insignificant aspect of music history faded into the background, even though its protagonists were world-class. “Our intention is,” explains Marian Polin, “to make everything that was the focus of the imperial court orchestra sound.”
Sound possibilities far from the standard
The uniform Renaissance soundscape of the Innsbruck Hofkirche, the choir organ from 1558, the Italian Renaissance organ, the only instrument of the Organo di legno tradition worldwide, and a positive organ from around 1700 will be used “apart from conventions”, confirm the idea providers of the Series, Franz Gratl and Marian Polin. “Above all, this means that musicians have time to explore, try out and exhaust the abundance of sound possibilities in the church. Far away from standard solutions, we want to promote, expand and exhaust performance practice on historical instruments with a mixture of scientific knowledge and experimentation,” says Marian Polin.
No lightweight: the composer Leopold von Plawenn
The music of the Benedictine Leopold von Plawenn, who was born in Innsbruck in 1628 and whose ancestral home in the Upper Vinschgau can be seen in pink today, was widespread in southern Germany and Austria. Franz Gratl recently discovered the printed original of his Requiem in Kraków. Marian Polin describes the productive baroque musician as absolutely up to date with his time. But not only Leopold von Plawenn, but also Alphons Sepp, who was born in Caldaro and is a priest at the Marienberg monastery, is passing on his musical heritage to the present day in the concert series. Their paths will often have crossed with those of those passing through – and they were on the move themselves. Although the Brenner Pass had already replaced the Reschen crossing as an important trade and travel route from the 15th century, it was one or the other, and thus its musical one and cultural inspiration, it has continued to wash into the transit region par excellence Upper Vinschgau.
Monteverdi and Innsbruck, Ziani with the Emperor in Vienna
The Marian Vespers by Claudio Monteverdi, who has an excellent ensemble in Mantua – which has close contacts with Innsbruck – marks the start of the concert series; a piece that the musician accompanied the Borghese Pope Paul V. Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga had Innsbruck wind instruments sent to Mantua in 1608, when he had already brought Monteverdi to his court, to play at the carnival there. The good relations between the later Markuskapellmeister and the Habsburgs made the critics scoff: he composed too much for the eagle and not enough for the lion. Some of his major works are indeed dedicated to the imperial couple. In 1655 the Venetian musician Barbara Strozzi composed a collection of sacred motets for the Tyrolean Princess Anna de’ Medici, probably in the hope of being employed at the Innsbruck court. The composer Marc Antonio Ziani came from Venice via Mantua to Leopold I (who left behind his own musical works), where he became vice-kapellmeister in 1700 under Charles VI, then imperial court Kapellmeister in Vienna. The makers of the series are also internationally networked. Your audience might find it easier to attend the concerts today. It is less than 120 kilometers from the border at the Reschen Pass in Innsbruck’s Hofkirche, with one or the other concert repetition, especially on the Marienberg theme, also being planned in the home of the artistic director Marian Polin.