Concerto Köln at the Balthasar Neumann Musiktage Gößweinstein

On October 11, 2025, Concerto Köln performed as part of the Balthasar Neumann Musiktage in the Basilica of Gößweinstein. Under the leadership of Mayumi Hirasaki (violin), the ensemble presented a program featuring works by Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco, Alessandro Scarlatti, Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and Pietro Castrucci. The concert marked the highlight of this year’s festival, which was held entirely in Gößweinstein for the first time.

The program focused on Baroque soundscapes performed in historically informed style. Concerto Köln played without a conductor, in a small ensemble and on period instruments. The characteristic basso continuo was framed by the other instrumentalists, creating an immediate and chamber-like sound.

Mayumi Hirasaki impressed as soloist in Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041, with precision, calmness, and subtle phrasing. The audience responded with prolonged applause and requested several encores.

In the Nordbayerische Nachrichten on October 16, 2025, Udo Güldner wrote:

“This was not a softened, feel-good sound that passes through the ears without consequence, but powerful tones that, thanks to all their edges and contours, remain in the memory. At times it became elegiac and reverent or dance-like and wild, as in Alessandro Scarlatti; magically melodic or strikingly gripping, as in Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco.”