The Salzburg Camerata is one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras. Invitations to the most prestigious venues from New York to Beijing complement its concert commitments in its home town of Salzburg, where it is one of the core orchestras at both the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche Festival. It also gives an annual series of subscription concerts in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum. For several years the Camerata has also held its own chamber music festival at Bad Gastein under the title ‘Schubert in Gastein’.
Central to the Camerata’s repertoire is the music of Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert and, of course, Mozart. As a result, it is above all the Camerata’s typical ‘Salzburg Mozart sound’ that has distinguished the ensemble since it was founded by Bernhard Paumgartner in 1952, transforming it into a cultural ambassador and an international advertisement for the city of Mozart’s birth.
Highlights of recent seasons include appearances at the Lucerne Festival, the BBC Proms in London, the Edinburgh International Festival and New York’s Carnegie Hall. The Camerata has a particularly close association with the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Culture and Congress Centre in Lucerne, the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Cologne Philharmonie and the Philharmonie de Paris.
Among the personalities who have helped to shape the Camerata’s sound are Géza Anda, Sándor Végh and Roger Norrington, while the eminent musicians who have worked with the ensemble include Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Heinz Holliger, Alfred Brendel, Philippe Herreweghe, Franz Welser-Möst, Pinchas Zukerman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Teodor Currentzis, Matthias Goerne, Fazil Say, Renaud Capuçon, Yuja Wang and Hélène Grimaud.
The Camerata’s recordings have appeared on several international labels, including Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Sony and Warner Classics. Many have received important prizes and awards, and all attest to the Camerata’s outstanding quality and to the delight in making music shared by its musicians, who come from more than 20 different countries.
