Summerwinds Festival: La Fonte, Fabrizio Ventura: Scandal! Power Games, Intrigues and Triumphs

La Fonte. Westfälisches Barockorchester
Fabrizio Ventura - conductor

Michael Schmidt-Casdorff, traverso flute
Pablo Valetti, violin
Guillaume Cuiller, oboe
Catherine Jones, cello
Katrin Lazar, bassoon
Daniel Glowotz, host

La Fonte, the Westphalian baroque orchestra staffed with top-tier international musicians under conductor Fabrizio Ventura, has long since moved beyond insider-tip status. Growing attention is also turning to the Fürst zu Bentheimsche Musikaliensammlung Burgsteinfurt - an international repository of 18th-century music. From this treasure, once assembled by the Imperial Counts of Bentheim-Steinfurt and now held at the University and State Library in Münster, Fabrizio Ventura and musicologist Daniel Glowotz craft La Fonte's distinctive concert programmes. For 2026, the theme is "Scandal! Power Games, Intrigues and Triumphs".

The nobles of the Westphalian provinces were anything but provincial. Imperial Count Karl zu Bentheim und Steinfurt (1729-1780) spoke several languages, travelled widely, lived in Paris, and knew Voltaire. He and his son Ludwig (1756-1817) were accomplished flautists. Well connected in European musical circles, they collected contemporary music on their travels and commissioned new works from their court musicians. The counts maintained a court chapel of up to 35 highly skilled players, who performed in summer in their private "Grande Galerie pour les concerts". Karl had this elegant hall (today the "Bagno Konzertgalerie") built in 1774, modelled on the "Grand Trianon" at Versailles, within his sprawling pleasure park, the "Bagno". The court chapel played contemporary symphonies there, positioned in the middle of the room with the windows thrown wide open. The audience did not sit inside - they strolled in the park outside.

The Bagno park was not reserved for the nobility. With free admission, "well-dressed" townspeople mingled freely with the aristocracy.