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Ábrahám Consort was founded in 2009 by Márta Ábrahám violinist, soloist, Professor of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, and György Schweigert, bassist violone player. The orchestra plays masterpieces of Renaissance - Baroque and Classical composers on authentic instruments. Their performing style and personal sound represents a historically correct spirit that is free from additives. It is a result of many years of experience and research which is based only on original manuscripts.
Their repertoire focuses primarily on the works of J.S. Bach, but they keep pieces of great great composers of the Great Baroque Golden Age on their concert programmes permanently, as well. Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, G. Tartini, Tomaso Albinoni, H. Purcell, George Frideric Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s most prestigious orchestral pieces are mostly accompanied by a short explanatory lecture by illuminating the cultural background based on contemporary sources to discover the incredibly rich and colorful literature of the era. Particular attention is paid to the collection of the many undiscovered concertos by the sadly rarely played Antonio Vivaldi. Most of their concerts include one or more brilliant violin concertos of the 250 concertos composed by the Venetian Master, with Márta Ábrahám's improvised cadences.
The style trend of Italian Baroque music throughout the 18th century had a tremendous impact on whole Europe, its unsurpassed rich language and breathtaking virtuosity required special requirements and sophisticated techniques and from the performers. This is no different to today’s performers. In the approach of this historical repertoire, the ars poetica of Ábrahám Consort strives to seek the historical tone, and to cultivate traditions taught in a subjective way of experiancing music. Their authentic - but in many ways contemporary – approach often result in unusual individual interpretations and a unique, lively sound. Their performances are characterized by strong and colorful articulation, their tone is rich of frequencies and overtones.
The Ábrahám Consort works like a 18th century small court bands with 5-8 string players, occasionally complemented with wind instruments - always adapted to the instrumentation of the works being performed. The ensemble performed several times at the Zemplén Festival, Budapest Bach Weeks in the Deák Tér Evangelical Church, Beethoven Budán Festival, New York Palace, Jókai Szalon. They play concerts at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Óbudai Társaskör, Brunszvik Castle in Martonvásár, Sárospatak, Great Church in Debrecen, Vác, Zebegény, Ukraine. They are often invited to castles and private events. They perform regularly with world-famous instrumental and vocal soloists and conductors such as László Borsódy, Lúcia Schwartz, Eszter Zemlényi, Christoph Prégardien, Benjamin Russell, Wolf Matthias Friedrich and Zsolt Hamar. Their concerts are regularly broadcasted by the Hungarian Radio. In 2019, at the opening ceremony of the new organ of the grand hall of the Academy of Music, János Pálúr Liszt Prize-winning organist was their soloist. |
