Concert

September 11, 2026, 7:00 PM
Festival and Congress Center / Hall 1

Artistic Director Stefan Gottfried
Program: "Concentus musicus sacro-profanus" Works by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Romanus Weichlein, Georges Muffat

Since its creation in 1953 at the idea of ​​the world-famous conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his wife Alice, Concentus musicus Wien has been an ensemble that searches, explores, experiments and discovers forgotten and almost unperformed works from the treasury of early music. They play instruments from the era and build a new understanding of the interpretation of this music, scientifically based, spiritualized and true to the time in which the music was created. They have chosen to call themselves "Consentus musicus", which means "harmony, to sound together". They are meticulous about every detail, they have been preparing for their first concert in front of an audience for 4 years, but their appearance at the reopening of the Schwarzenberg Palace is impressive. Then Concentus musicus Wien will perform sonatas from the collection “Armonico tribute” by Georges Mouffe – with one of them they will complete the program that they have prepared especially for the “Varna Summer”. The other works that they have selected for their performance in front of the audience in Varna are by Johann Schmelzer, an Austrian composer and violinist, one of the leading musicians of the 17th century, who had a strong influence on the next generation of artists. One of them is Heinrich Biber, also a virtuoso violinist and composer, whose musical language and diverse harmonic techniques are precursors of the later Baroque works of composers such as Pachelbel and J.S. Bach. And we add the name of another Austrian, Romanus Weichlein, a contemporary of Bieber, who managed to build his own distinctive style, as evidenced by the two music collections he left behind. The program is entirely made up of works that were created, inspired and presented for the first time under the patronage of the Habsburg dynasty and in the heyday of its era. The pure dedication of music for the spirit, combined with the pleasure of its performance at the royal court – this intersection unites the works in this remarkable program of one of the leading ensembles in the interpretation of early and baroque music.

Under the honorary patronage of H.E. Andrea Ikic-Böhm - Ambassador of Austria to Bulgaria
Courtesy of the Austrian Cultural Forum Sofia

Tickets at the box office: Palace of Culture and Sports opening hours: Monday - Saturday: 10:00 - 13:30 and 14:30 - 18:00 Sunday: Closed, phone: +359 52 501 500
Festival and Congress Center: every day from 10:30 to 20:00 / break 15:30 - 16:00 /, phone: +359 52 608 446.
Tickets online: Festival and Congress Center