With his new album Popmashing Vivaldi, the Upper Austrian countertenor Alois Mühlbacher presents a project that is as surprising as it is delightful – a musical idea somewhere between baroque virtuosity, playful stylistic acrobatics, and a genuine love letter to two worlds: pop and the Baroque. For Mühlbacher, the project is clearly enormous fun. The countertenor, who has been considered one of the most exciting voices of the baroque scene for years, moves through this repertoire with a blend of elegance, joy in performance, and subtle humor. His voice refines the pieces with the kind of baroque vocal artistry for which he is well known: smooth lines, sparkling coloraturas, and an expressive power that suddenly casts even familiar pop songs in an entirely new light. Listening to it, one inevitably finds oneself thinking: yes–perhaps Antonio Vivaldi might actually have written it just like this. The arranger behind this charming experiment is the composer Georg Wiesinger. With a keen sensitivity for style, structure, and baroque sonority, he has placed four pop classics into a musical time machine and reimagined them with the refinement of the Venetian Baroque. The result is a set of musical delicacies that are far more than parody or stylistic playfulness–they reveal a remarkable sense of authenticity. Sequences, basso continuo, dance-like ritornellos, and virtuosic melodic lines suddenly make one realize how closely baroque affect and modern pop melody can sometimes be related. That this musical journey through time works so convincingly is also due to the album’s outstanding line-up of musicians. Once again, the excellent Spring String Quartet is on board–Christian Wirth (violin I), Marcus Wall (violin II), Julian Gillesberger (viola), and Stephan Punderlitschek (violoncello)–an ensemble that has accompanied Mühlbacher for many years and impresses not only with stylistic precision but also with vibrant musicality. They are joined by outstanding performers from the baroque scene: Erich Traxler and Andreas Stöger on harpsichord, Christina Kaser and Andreas Reckenzain on double bass, and the renowned lutenist Hubert Hoffmann. Together they create a sound that is so buoyant, transparent, and energetic that one might almost imagine sitting in a Venetian ospedale of the early eighteenth century–except that suddenly, pop history is being performed.

The album’s program reads like a small best-of of pop culture: Crazy (Brian Burton and Thomas Callaway), Somewhere Only We Know (Tom Chaplin, Richard Hughes, Tim Rice-Oxley), Every Breath You Take by Sting, and Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. Popmashing Vivaldi is far more than a crossover project. It is a musical wink with substance–cleverly arranged, brilliantly performed, and presented with a generous dose of charm. The album demonstrates how timeless musical ideas can be when realized with imagination, craftsmanship, and just a little touch of Austrian Schmäh. Or, put differently: if Antonio Vivaldi had lived in the twenty-first century, he might well have enjoyed writing pop music just as much. And if he had had a countertenor like Alois Mühlbacher at his disposal, the result might not have been very far from what can be heard on Popmashing Vivaldi–an album that surprises, delights, and above all does one thing: it’s tremendous fun.