Orchester
Orchestra Divertimento Viennese
Divertimento Viennese was founded by Vinzenz Praxmarer in 1998. Together with the concertmaster Martin Reining, he formed the orchestra, which originally consisted of music students, into a homogeneous ensemble in which the outstanding quality of its musicians guarantees the highest quality and opulence of sound.
Focus
The orchestra has found its musical home in the fin de siècle, the late 19th and early 20th century. One special focus is on works by formerly ostracized composers forced into emigration, whose oeuvre has a connection with Vienna. This includes compositions by Gustav Mahler, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Arnold Schoenberg, Karl Weigl, Kurt Weill, Darius Milhaud, Dmitri Shostakovich, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and others.
Stringent Dramaturgy
Divertimento Viennese conceives concert programmes featuring works of late romanticism, impressionism, expressionism, Jugendstil, early modernism as well as jazz-inspired works. With this background, the orchestra constructs programmes with a clear dramaturgical line dealing with Vienna, homeland(s), identity, emigration, exile, loss, longing and nostalgia.
Collaboration with First-Rate Soloists
Working regularly with renowned opera singers is one of the mainstays of the orchestra’s artistic work. Divertimento Viennese has worked with vocalists including KS Angelika Kirchschlager, Camilla Nylund, Nadine Sierra, Rihab Chaieb, Hila Fahima, Valentina Nafornita, Ildiko Raimondi, René Pape, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov, Luca Pisaroni, Lucas Meachem, Rafael Fingerlos, Paul Schweinester and others.
Concert Tours
Tours have taken the orchestra all over Austria and most recently to New York, Milan, Las Palmas, London and Chemnitz. It performs regularly at Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus in Las Palmas and many other concert halls.
Viennese Ball Culture
In addition to its concert programmes, the orchestra is also dedicated to the typical Viennese dance music as well as dance music of the 1920s and 1930s, having established itself as one of the most renowned dance orchestras in Austria. The orchestra’s references in this regard include the Vienna Philharmonic Ball, the Ball of Vienna’s Coffee Roasters, the Viennese Scientists’ Ball, the Hofburg’s New Year’s Ball, the Viennese Opera Ball in New York, the Ballo Viennese in Milan, the Chemnitz Opera Ball and many others.