(Editor's Note: This recently received announcement of the activities of the Austrian Woodwind Quintet seemed particularly interesting because of the many different instrumental combinations used by the ensemble. It is also very nice to hear of an example of a bi-national cooperation in the form of concerts for large wind ensemble utilizing this quintet and a group from Hungary. Werner Schulze, the quintet's founding organizer, hopes to meet many IDRS members when he attends our 1980 Edinburgh conference, where he plans to demonstrate the contrabassoon in a performance for us.)
The "Austrian Woodwind Quintet" was founded in 1973 and developed within a few years into one of the most important chamber-music-groups in Austria. Many composers have written music for this ensemble; therefore you can find many world premieres in our list of the more than a hundred concerts and broadcasts. The "Austrian Woodwind Quintet" has given concerts in all musical centers of Austria, but also in Western Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, France, Great Britain, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Colombia, Panama and Peru. Some future concerts have been planned in Italy, Norway, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary and the USSR.
The repertoire of our "Austrian Woodwind Quintet" ranges from compositions of the beginning of the 19th century, when the first pieces were written for this formation (flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon) to contemporary compositions. If it is necessary, we can add a cembalo (harpsichord) or a regal to our ensemble. Thus we are able to play Baroque solo and trio sonatas in our concerts as well. Since we are also able to play historical flutes, the oboe (soprano-pommer), the tenor-pommer and the dulcian, renaissance music can be added to our repertoire.
In order to enlarge our repertoire, we also add some more wind instruments, e.g. a bass clarinet. The fact that piccolo, oboe d'amour English horn, saxophone, double bassoon and contrabass-sarrusophone are owned by the "Austrian Woodwind Quintet" makes it possible to perform every work, particularly the ones of the present time. In our programs we want to given an overall view of all the periods of music where chamber music for wind instruments was composed.
Because of the fact that there is no permanent woodwind-ensemble in Austria with ten or more members, some of our concerts and broadcasts are given with the "Woodwind Quintet of Hungarian Opera, Budapest". This ten-member ensemble, originally two quintets is then called "The Austrio-Hungarian Woodwind-Ensemble". Well-known composers of the Austrio-Hungarian area have written works for our combined ensemble upon commission, e.g. Iván Erod and Jeno Takács who was professor of composition in Cincinnati for a long time. The conductor of this ensemble if needed is Stefan Soltesz of the Vienna-State-Opera. Among our soloists have been the US-born trumpeter Carole Dawn Reinhart. The "Austrio-Hungarian Woodwind-Ensemble" has given concerts in the world-famous "Musikvereinssaal" and "Schloss Schonbrunn" in Vienna and in the Bruckner-Hall in Linz.
Management:
Dr. Werner Schulze
Mozartgasse 9,
A-2700
Wiener Neistadt
Austria/Europa
Tel. 026 22/64 4 82