Fingerzaig means
-) the finger-stuff, the virtuosity in the music – runs, jumps and passages, where the fingers magically prance and fly over the strings, so that one is enchanted by the technical lightness alone.
-) a „Fingerzeig“, the hint – an action to make someone aware of something.
This project is especially dedicated to the alto viol and its role in court chamber music.
Originally conceived as a consort- and orchestral-instrument, the alto viol was widespread in the Baroque period. It was represented at almost every court and in every church that had an (already small) orchestra. Because of her small scale, the alto-viol was also very popular as a student instrument for adolescent musicians and the young nobility.
Today, the alto viol ekes out a shadowy existence, as only a small amount of literature for the instrument has been preserved. After an extensive research we are now able to present the first program of this project: The alto viol at the Viennese court.
In the duo instrumentation alto gamba and lute, rare works by Attilo Ariosti, Jean-Baptiste Barriere, Godfrey Finger, Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi, Johann Georg Lang, Christopher Simpson and Georg Phillipp Telemann will be revived.
Magdalena Kelz – alto viol
Klaus Haidl – lute