Ars Longa Chamber Orchestra
The Ars Longa Chamber Orchestra was
founded in 1995 to perform Bach's St John Passion under the baton of
Soma Dinyés, who has been the artistic director ever since. The members then
were still students at the Academy of Music, who were interested in the
authentic performance of Baroque oratorical works. The repertoire of the
orchestra mainly features the works of Bach and Händel,
performed on period instruments. Ars Longa regularly gives concerts in Hungary
and abroad. In the 2002/2003 season they performed Bach's first annual Leipzig
cantata cycle at the Evangelical church at Bécsi kapu tér, in the course of
over 50 concerts. The performance received very good response from the members
of the Hungarian music life, and earned them invitations to several festivals,
such as the Zemplén Festival, the Pécs Spring Festival or the Kodály Festival
in Kecskemét. Their first CDs feature the works of Bach (Christmas Oratorio,
The Magnificat in E-flat major, Christmas Cantatas BWV 63, 40, 64) and
Mozart (Mass in C minor, K 427). Their last two CDs – Banchieri's Sinfonie
ecclesiastiche with the Ars Renata, and Rauch's Currus triumphalis
musicus with the Budapest Tomkins Vocal Ensemble – were recorded for Hungaroton.