Biography
Sweden's Höör Barock stands among Scandinavia's leading ensembles devoted to Baroque repertory, its adaptable roster enabling the collective to explore an unusually broad range of works. Without a standing music director, the players invite collaborators chosen expressly for each undertaking.
The ensemble took formal shape in 2012 after its members, already acquainted through appearances at the summer Höör Baroque Festival, resolved to maintain an ongoing partnership. Still headquartered in the compact southern Swedish town of Höör, the name simultaneously signals that location and puns on the Swedish verb “höör,” meaning “hear.” Recognition soon extended past regional boundaries, securing a recording agreement with BIS. Nine professional musicians from southern Sweden form the nucleus, each performing on historically informed instruments. When required, the core expands through two routes: guest artists such as violinist Aureliusz Golinski, organist Martin Gester, and the recorder-and-harpsichord partnership of Dan Laurin with Anna Paradiso (several joint recordings have resulted), and the temporary addition of extra players for larger-scale scores. The group’s interpretive approach emphasizes granting each participant ample expressive freedom. Its programming traverses the Baroque era, moving from Bach and other masters of counterpoint to Italian display pieces and lighter rococo fare.
Höör Barock entered the BIS catalogue in 2017 with a program of chamber music by Telemann, Corelli, and Bach that featured Laurin and Paradiso. Two years later the ensemble released its realization of the Golovinmusiken, a collection of forty-five partially notated movements scored for eighteen separate instruments plus continuo. In 2020 the group joined several peer Baroque ensembles in a recording of Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo.
The ensemble took formal shape in 2012 after its members, already acquainted through appearances at the summer Höör Baroque Festival, resolved to maintain an ongoing partnership. Still headquartered in the compact southern Swedish town of Höör, the name simultaneously signals that location and puns on the Swedish verb “höör,” meaning “hear.” Recognition soon extended past regional boundaries, securing a recording agreement with BIS. Nine professional musicians from southern Sweden form the nucleus, each performing on historically informed instruments. When required, the core expands through two routes: guest artists such as violinist Aureliusz Golinski, organist Martin Gester, and the recorder-and-harpsichord partnership of Dan Laurin with Anna Paradiso (several joint recordings have resulted), and the temporary addition of extra players for larger-scale scores. The group’s interpretive approach emphasizes granting each participant ample expressive freedom. Its programming traverses the Baroque era, moving from Bach and other masters of counterpoint to Italian display pieces and lighter rococo fare.
Höör Barock entered the BIS catalogue in 2017 with a program of chamber music by Telemann, Corelli, and Bach that featured Laurin and Paradiso. Two years later the ensemble released its realization of the Golovinmusiken, a collection of forty-five partially notated movements scored for eighteen separate instruments plus continuo. In 2020 the group joined several peer Baroque ensembles in a recording of Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo.
Albums
