Tyrolean Gröstl 1710. Handel in Innsbruck

The Innsbruck ensemble Rosarum Flores, founded in 2014 by recorder player Ilse Strauß and lutenist Wolfgang Praxmarer, embarked on a musical search for traces of the time around 1710 in Innsbruck.
The writer Christoph W. Bauer contributed a literary text. Tiroler Gröstl 1710. Händel in Innsbruck" is published under the label musikmuseum, which is supervised by Franz Gratl, head of the music collection of the Tyrolean Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum.

After spending four years in Italy, George Frideric Handel travelled over the Brenner Pass in 1709. In his luggage, the aspiring composer had a letter of recommendation from Ferdinando de Medici in Florence. It was addressed to Charles III Philip of the Palatinate, who resided in Innsbruck as governor.
"I therefore wish to recommend him most warmly to Your Highness with this request, knowing that he will most humbly consider it an honour to present himself to you [...]", Ferdinando wrote on 9 November 1709. It was no coincidence that he turned to Charles Philip.

Karl Philipp's reputation as a promoter of music extended far beyond the country's borders. He maintained an excellent music band and delighted his guests with magnificent opera performances in the "Comedi House". His wife Theresa Katharina was an outstanding singer, and his daughter from his first marriage, Elisabeth Auguste Sophie, regularly organized musical academies at court.
The composers Jakob Greber as Kapellmeister and Gottfried Finger as Konzertmeister ensured international renown. Both had previously worked in London.
Unfortunately, little is known about Handel's stay in Innsbruck beyond the letter of recommendation - and Karl Philpp's reply. Letters and reports from people passing through provide scanty information.

The writer Christoph W. Bauer fills this gap with a literary fiction. He has Handel write a letter some decades later, addressed to the then famous lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss.
Although his life is only fragmentarily documented, he was already in Karl Philipp's service before he moved to Innsbruck. He was probably active in Innsbruck until about 1710 - and again a few years later. And of course it can be assumed that Handel, Weiss, Greber and Finger met at the court in Innsbruck.
Christoph W. Bauer takes advantage of this for the letter. He lets Handel reminisce. The long-famous composer thinks of the conversations with fellow musicians, of the meetings at the inn (there's a post by my blogger colleague Werner about the historic inns in Innsbruck).

He can literally smell the Tyrolean Gröstl that was served to them at the time. None of his cooks had ever succeeded in cooking it in London the way he had enjoyed it in Innsbruck, he wrote to Weiss. And this despite the fact that he had wrested the original recipe from the innkeeper.
Handel also recalls in this letter fellow musicians such as Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Bononcini. He writes about Pietro Nicoló Sorosina and Johann Christoph Pepusch, who had worked in Innsbruck - and knows all sorts of things about them.

Music by these composers can be found on the CD "Tiroler Gröstl 1710. Händel in Innsbruck" alongside Georg Friedrich Händel's Spanish cantata " No se emenderá jamás " and Silvius Leopold Weiss ' "La belle Tiroloise".
The ensemble Rosarum Flores thus connects music in the environment of Handel in Italy with the diverse musical life in Innsbruck at that time. Bauer's fictional letter harmoniously rounds off the sound experience. He brings to life the atmosphere at the court, in the alleys of the old town, and spikes the impressions with stories about the composers, which can be heard on the CD.

"Tiroler Gröstl 1710. Händel in Innsbruck" takes you on an exciting musical-literary search for traces. A comprehensive booklet supplements this wonderful listening journey into the past with a historical classification and the biographies of the composers and musicians. Highly recommended!

TirolerGröstl 1710. Handel in Innsbruck.
A literary-musical search for traces.
Christoph W. Bauer - Ensemble Rosarum Flores
musikmuseum 52, Tiroler Landesmuseum
Available in the shop of the Tiroler Landesmuseen and in well-stocked music shops.

Concert dates of the Ensemble Rosarum Flores can be found on the homepage and in the event calendar ofInnsbruck Tourism.

Photos, unless otherwise indicated: © Susanne Gurschler