Orchester Wiener Akademie

The Orchester Wiener Akademie ranks among the small number of ensembles that have presented Liszt’s works on period instruments. Conductor Martin Haselböck established the group in 1985 and has continued as its music director into the early 2020s. As one of Austria’s earliest historically informed orchestras, it gained prompt recognition with a 1988 Novalis recording of C.P.E. Bach concertos. Its hallmark adaptability allows the use of period instruments from multiple eras alongside modern ones, enabling performances that range from the Baroque to the late Romantic.

Home performances take place in Vienna’s Musikverein, while more than one hundred additional engagements have occurred across Europe and North America, along with appearances in Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, and Tel Aviv. The orchestra maintains a regular presence at the Prague Spring Festival, the Frankfurter Fest, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and the Wiener Festwochen. In Vienna it has welcomed soloists of international stature, among them pianist Cyprien Katsaris, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, and violinist Isabelle Faust.

The ensemble serves as resident orchestra of the International Liszt Festival and has issued historically informed Liszt recordings on the Alpha label. Its extensive discography also includes releases on CPO, NCA, Gramola, and Novalis. In 2020 Alpha issued the orchestra’s Resound Beethoven: Complete Symphonies, part of a series recorded in the original premiere venues. Partnerships with opera companies and choirs have been frequent, and forthcoming projects encompass Haydn’s oratorio The Creation and Schubert’s complete masses. Two music dramas, The Infernal Comedy and The Giacomo Variations, were developed in collaboration with actor John Malkovich. The orchestra moved to the Aparte label in 2022 for the release of Liszt: Legends of the Saints, Vol. 1.