Die großen Oratorien-Produktionen der Tonkünstler-Societät in Wien – Kontrapunkt oder Nachfolger der höfischen Oratorienpflege des Barock?

After the death of Charles VI. music at the Hapsburg court in Vienna was gradual reduced by Maria Theresa. Also – similar to opera and theater – performances of oratorios were limited and no longer exclusively at the court and court society. Starting 1745 "Fast concerts" were initiated in the "Theater nächst der Burg". With the organization of major oratorio performances by the 1771 founded "Tonkünstler-Societät" ("Musicians-Societät") a further step has been achieved to a modern concert concept: not only the listener group was extended and changed, but also the performance venue from the immediate area of the Imperial Palace in the city, in the Kärntnertor- or Burgtheater laid; and also the commercial aspect should not be excluded, but it was primarily at these academies to increase the pension and provident fund of the Societät. But there are also parallels to the baroque oratorios productions: This starts with the topics, goes beyond the texts usually written in imitating Pietro Metastasio's librettos (such as Il ritorno di Tobia, GG Boccherini / Haydn) and ends with the choice of days of performance (Lent, Holy Week) and the conspicuous presence of the Emperor and Empress and members of the imperial family. And even continuity is stated by the performers: The "Tonkünstler-Societät" as (essentially) "Pension Institute of the court musician" was naturally anxious to have involved its members in the first place, so the musicians of the court orchestra and the singers of the court theater. The paper is mainly focused to the issues of continuity and discontinuity in the detachment of the courtly dominated musical life in Vienna by a publicly-commercial as well as the redefinition of the genre oratorio in Vienna 1770–1810.