By Michael Tschida, editor, "Kleine Zeitung" Graz
"From his very childhood this Handel had discovered such a strong propensity to music that his father had reason to be alarmed ", says his friend and biographer John Mainwaring in 1760. Handel's father, a plague doctor, limited or perhaps even forbade further musical activity out of concern for the lad's future. Most probably he would have wanted his offspring to pursue a decent career in the field of jurisprudence. And when at the early age of seven little George Frideric rehearsed at the organ for the first time, the hands that clapped after the mass were those slapping. As we know, rather to no avail.
Suspect clapping was never heard in the home of Lydia Vierlinger. On the contrary: there were piano and violin and singing. Otherwise one wouldn't be holding an audio-CD but possibly a new bill drawn up by the lawyer Dr.Vierlinger. No, the world of sound has always been a "respectable" one. Also for Lydia Vierlinger and her exceptionally "strong propensity to it" - music being her nourishment, yet needing some supervision by the Center for Food Security so to say. The alto-singer found this guidance at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna where she was trained as a soloist and in voice pedagogy. She also took private lessons with Herwig Reiter in Vienna and with the legendary Diane Forlano in London . Meanwhile, Vierlinger has changed fronts - she now serves as associate professor at the University she studied at, her talent paired with hard work having born fruit.
Besides her wide ensemble experience in Vienna ("Arnold Schoenberg Choir", "Voces", "Nova") other fruit that the soloist has collected is both colourful and ripe:
Here Bach's "Passion of St.Matthew" at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, there an avantgarde project with the jazz saxophonist Max Nagl. Here a renaissance programme with the New World Gamba Consort, there Werner Pirchner's sophisticated music for the "Jedermann" in Salzburg . Here "German Songs" with the Clemencic Consort, there Beethoven's "9 th symphony" with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Madrid . Here the world première of the presumedly long-lost Telemann opera "Pastorelle en musique", there the "Romantic Duets" with Doerthe M. Sandmann. Here the opening concert for the World Cultural Capital 2002 Salamanca with the “Wiener Akademie”, there the first performance of the intonations of Hesse's poems for alto and string quartet by Wolff Dietrich Gasztner. Here the scenic role of the Narcisa in Handel's "Agrippina", there the world première of the pastoral opera "Franziskus" by Heinz Kratochwil. The list is endless…
The singer "with the warm, clear, colourful alto" (from: "Die Presse") does not randomly choose the musical across-country excursions but bases them on her artistic curiosity, her open eyes and ears. Vierlinger emphasizes her independence with variety instead of naivety. That is why the artist can unreservedly sign a quotation of one of her favourite composers, namely Handel, who said: "One must learn what there is to learn and then cut one's own path."
This recording with the Capella Leopoldina is a beautiful breakpoint of the alto-singer.
But Lydia Vierlinger is already moving on.