
3 Questions for: Ada Pesch
Concertmaster of the Orchestra La Scintilla, musical director
1) You founded the Orchestra La Scintilla in 1996 together with some of your colleagues from the Zurich Opera Orchestra. What makes your orchestra so special?
At the time, we were inspired by the conductor and early music expert Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who worked with us at Zurich Opera on modern instruments. Then we founded “La Scintilla”, which means “The Spark” in English, and acquired baroque instruments. We play a lot of opera, for instance in March, we will be performing in Händel’s opera “Agrippina”, but we also give concerts and we record albums, for example with Cecilia Bartoli and Juan Diego Florez. I think that our orchestra is so special thanks to its particular passion.
2) With Johann Pachelbel’s Canon and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Double Concerto in D minor, you have some real Baroque classics in your programme, whereas the opening Concerto grosso by George Friedrich Händel is less well known. What do you like about this piece?
Nothing special – I love all Concerti Grossi by Händel. I like everything about this composer. Händel’s music is very accessible and yet full of emotion and depth. His works never cease to fascinate me.
3) In the final organ concert, “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale”, the orchestra plays together with organist Andreas Jost. Do you know each other?
No, so this will be a real premiere in Klosters. The artistic director David Whelton has brought us together. We will be playing with our twelve-piece orchestra at the front of the church in the chancel. I’m curious to see how the interaction with the organ, played in the gallery at the back, will work out. This could well prove to be something very special in terms of sound.
Interview by Georg Rudiger
January 2025