The Deutsche Kammer-Virtuosen Berlin (= DKVB) were founded in 1995 by Joachim Pliquett, and consist of soloists and members of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
This ensemble has set itself the aim of presenting ancient music in new ways. The distinguishing features of this orchestra are that they arrange their own series of concerts, with a presenter, in the Chamber Music Room of the Berlin Philharmonie, they work as a team and usually without a conductor, and create unconventional forms of concert events such as the "Brandenburg Summer Concerts" under the heading of "You must have at least this much Bach", or "Händel & Co."
The musicians expressly state their belief in their "modern" instrumentation. In this way, and through their constant and intense joint grappling with the original scores, they produce dynamic interpretations of "ancient music" which take their line form a modern ideal of musical sound.
The ensemble has already collaborated with artists such as Jochen Kowalski, Edith Mathis, Igor Oistrakh and Georg Christoph Biller, the Kantor of St Thomas' in Leipzig. The first CD production appeared in 1997 with works by J.S. Bach recorded in the Convent and Pilgrimage Church of Neuzelle. A project with works by George Friedrich Händel (presented by Bernhard Morbach) was broadcast live and nation-wide by Deutschland Radio Berlin, and this was followed in 1999 by the television recording of a Christmas Concert by the ORB television station.
Klaus Geitel, writing in the Berliner Morgenpost, attributes to the German Chamber Virtuosi of Berlin a "bravura performance of colleagues who have learned to play and fit together brilliantly, and are suitably rewarded with rich applause for all". And in the same newspaper Jürgen Otten has written of an "extremely entertaining evening" and emphasises the "vital and particularly dynamic, multi-facetted music-making" of the ensemble. |