Press

The author Jolanda Steiner and the first-class baroque ensemble NeoBarock

This wonderful CD picture book celebrates freedom. The imitated animal voices and the sounds of instruments such as the theorbo or salterium are an experience. Virtuoso passages, subtle, expressive and wittily played music make this new release a musical experience with real added value for young and old.

A real treasure

The ensemble NeoBarock always comes up with interesting programmes and recordings. This is another one: the subject matter is interesting and has been worked out in a varied and compelling way. It includes quite some pieces that are hardly known or not known at all.

NeoBarock is a very German ensemble, playing in the style of the former ensemble Musica antiqua Köln, which in my book is a strong recommendation. The technical brilliance, the intensity of expression, the rhetorical approach and strong dynamic accents are all things that speak in its favour.

Read the whole review by Johan van Veen

Bach’s Musical Offering at the master concerts

Rarely do you experience such a well thought-out, fully self-contained concert program.

NeoBarock is something of the best the German baroque music scene has to offer:
engaging performances, well articulated, with effective dynamic contrasts.

Read the whole review by Johan van Veen

In the footsteps of Queen Kristina of Sweden

The baroque hall of Troja Castle had an incredible musical experience on Monday
NeoBarock surprised with its lightness and incredible, often overwhelming virtuosity. The audience recognized this heroic achievement not only with long applause, but also with admiring words of praise and amazement.

The innermost level

NeoBarock reveals the different levels of composition in Bach’s trio sonatas.
Some of Bach’s chamber music compositions must have been lost – the German string ensemble NeoBarock corrects this loss with the interesting album Metamorphose.
…with resounding intonation and exceptional musical interaction and articulation.

… nothing except delight.

In a substantial essay, the moving spirit of NeoBarock, Maren Ries, makes the case for the concerto version being a later adaptation, where nothing substantial is added to the doubling violin parts in the tuttis, and the viola adds only such harmonies as are implied by the bass, and indeed nothing is lost in their trio sonata version.

Read the whole article: Early Music Review

NeoBarock is World-class.

… masterly played, intellectually designed, with emphasis up to ecstasy but also with natural easiness and with grandeur in very soft, dance-like passages. NeoBarock masters the art of breathless pauses, the art of incredibly fascinating transitions, of playing melodies resting in itself as well as unbelievable rapid arpeggios and emotional crescendos over many bars. Echo effects which are exhausted to the limit captivate the audience. Sometimes you are asking yourself if the ensemble is still playing, when after a fiery forte a celestial pianissimo gleams from afar.

The centrepiece of the concert was Mozart’s Divertimento for violin, viola and violoncello in E flat-major (KV 563), which seemed to be composed directly for NeoBarock. The rich and full sound of the only three musicians created the impression that you heard a full string orchestra in some passages. A complex piece of chamber music, which revealed under the hands of NeoBarock its true beauty.

A firework of music and passion and an unbelievable playing technique.

Perfect and noninterchangeable.

NeoBarock in the Brucknerhaus Linz
Great music, played by NeoBarock virtuously, stylistically absolutely competent and with great passion.
Performance: ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗  (of 5)