Long in the illegitimate possession of the KHM and the mdw, restituted in 2019, and now officially back at the Department of Early Music: the 1810 Rosenberger fortepiano.

The mdw’s Department of Early Music can now look back on an entire year’s worth of activity since its establishment in the autumn of 2020, but it was only just recently that its official opening celebration was able to take place. The broad musical programming of its inaugural concert was selected to reflect the Department’s main emphases.

A new home for the oldest repertoire: with the establishment of the mdw’s 25th department, instrumentalists and singers now have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of historically informed performance more fully than ever before.

It was early in life that this passionate musician felt drawn to her parents’ piano—and today, she’s a frequently requested soloist, an enthusiastic continuo player, and a professor of harpsichord at the Institute of Early Music and Historical Performance Practice at the Anton Bruckner Private University of Upper Austria.

The academic year of 2020/21 marks the birth of the mdw’s Department of Early Music—and in the following conversation, department head Stefan Gottfried and deputy head Eugène Michelangeli speak about their approaches to historically informed performance and the initial projects of this new department.

A central performance practice-related concern is the employment of period instruments or appropriately made replicas thereof, the investigation and mastery of which brings us closer to the music created by those who originally played on them.

Early Music in Picture by Theresa Pewal.

This summer, on 29 July 2020, Wolfgang Glüxam passed away following a long and serious illness. We mourn a beloved friend and colleague who was a great artist and an enthusiastic teacher.