Intermusica toured Freiburg Baroque Orchestra to the USA and Canada in July 2008, for three exciting performances at the renowned Tanglewood Festival, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival as well as Le Festival International de Lanaudière, near Montreal, Canada. Soloists included the baritone Christian Gerhaher, whose debut it was with the FBO, critically acclaimed keyboard player Kris Bezouidenhout, clarinetist Lorenzo Coppola and horn player Teunis van der Zwart. Gerhaher and Bezouidenhout made their debut performances at the Lincoln Center in this eclectic all-Mozart programme which included the Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor K466 and “Non più andrais” from Le Nozze di Figaro.
“Rhythmic brio, crisp articulation and an engaging sense of adventure.” The New York Times
“Gerhahers tone is unfailingly beautiful and perfectly transparent.” The Guardian
“He played Mozart so purely, so heroically, with so much nuance, so elegantly, so surprisingly and so expressively...like an inspired conductor of opera he [Kristian Bezoudenhoit] brought each and every character of Mozart's score to life.”
NRC Handelsblad
The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra travelled to Athens in February 2009 with counter-tenor Christophe Dumaux to perform an all-Handel programme including a selection of operatic arias. This marked a return to the city for the Ensemble who performed the Messiah in Athens in 2005.
Following their successful debut tour of South Korea to Tonyeong, Seoul and Goyang with soloist Carolyn Sampson the Freiburger Barockorchester made a return to London's Barbican in April 2008. Joined by mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink they performed an all-Bach programme following the last-minute cancellation of Thomas Quasthoff.
"Supported by outstanding orchestral playing, this performance was an absolute joy."
Classical Source
"Conductor-less and standing up throughout, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, with never more than 16 players on the platform at any one time, played with practised refinement...The concerto for violin and oboe, featuring the orchestra's leader Katharina Schreiber and its outstanding oboist Katharina Arfken, was the orchestral highlight of the concert..."
Guardian
A joint concert at the Proms saw the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the world's leading baroque orchestras join forces to perform a lively programme focusing on the works of Handel, including his famous Music for the Royal Fireworks. This unique partnership appeared together for the first time in Spring 2007 at the Aldeburgh Festival, and was reprised at the Proms with the addition of Ian Bostridge as soloist.
"The Freiburg ensemble were by turns sumptuous and dynamic with an enviable palette of beautiful colours."
Independent