"Dance for two"- Flutist DorotheeOberlinger and Violist Nils Mönkemeyer - CD Review, 26^th of May 2023

Musical pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Béla Bartók, Konstantia Gourzi, Nicola Matteis, James Oswald.

"Dance for two" is the title of flautist Dorothee Oberlinger's latest album, recorded together with violist Nils Mönkemeyer. "Dance for two" - a program of various pieces with dance rhythms composed in different periods, from the Renaissance to contemporary times, in arrangements composed by the two performers of the works. Most of the scores on this album, recorded in September 2022 at Elmau Palace in Germany and released on April 7^th, 2023 at Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, are chosen from the works of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. We also find here pieces by other baroque creators, we can also listen on this disc to a piece by the 12th century Benedictine nun Hildegard von Bingen, as well as modern and contemporary works created by Béla Bartók, Konstantia Gourzi, Morton Feldman and John Cage.

Dorothee Oberlinger, 53 years old, has earned respect in the field of early music. She works as a professor at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg and director of the Institute for Early Music in the same city, and is also the director of the Baroque Festival in the German city of Arolser. She studied the flute and pre-classical creation in Cologne, Amsterdam and Milan and performed concerts as a soloist of famous European ensembles such as Musica Antiqua Cologne or the Academy of Early Music in England. In 2002 she founded the ensemble 1700, with which she recorded 9 albums and received numerous awards such as Echo Klassik and Diapason d'Or, her performance being rightly appreciated for its elegance, for the rigor in playing the styles approached and the ability to convey emotion through her concerts and recordings.

The violist Nils Mönkemeyer is one of the most active German musicians, he has recorded several discs and made arrangements for the viola of some famous works from the universal literature, making this instrument more respected on the international music scene. He studied at important institutions in Germany and Austria and won several prestigious awards, such as the First Prize at the Yuri Bashmet International Competition in 2006 and an Echo Klassik award in 2010. Having reached the age of 45, he is currently a viola professor at the Music Universities of Dresden and Munich.

About his new album, Nils Mönkemeyer says: "Simply, I was attracted to the idea of ​​launching a dialogue with such a wonderful musician as Dorothee, whose energy inspires you and who has a remarkable inner freedom...... Regardless of the type of flute she plays, she can evoke so many colors that a musician like me, who plays only one instrument, can be inspired to enrich his palette of sound nuances."