The premiere of Mozart’s Quintet for piano and winds has been a shock and at the same time a delight for the audience of the 18th century. The immense richness of colors and sounds were entirely unusual. Mozart had been searching for new challenges and was rewarded. After the premier on April 1st, 1784 Mozart wrote to his father: "... had a very great success ... I myself consider it to be the best work I have ever written in my life." Mozart celebrated one of the greatest triumphs of his career. The near-orchestral rich sonorities, the masterful harmony, the continuing and vigorous dialogue of the oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon with the piano was heard for the first time.
Only thirteen years later Beethoven started to work with this unusual instrumentation and tonal colors. His quintet for piano and winds was also premiered in Vienna on April 6, 1797. Beethoven created with the minimal instrumentation a fascinating sound art of simple things, a composition which was prophetic of his later symphonic works.
Under the group name „Die Freitagsakademie“ Katharina Suske gathered some of the finest international artists: Edoardo Torbianelli (fortepiano), Katharina Suske (oboe), Pierre-André Taillard (clarinet), Lyndon Watts (bassoon) and Olivier Darbellay (horn). These five musicians, each with their own unique character, blend together and reciprocally influence each other to create a single flowing sound body and impresses with their entirely new, dynamic interpretation. Producer Stefan Winter has attached great importance to simple, clear and high-quality recording art. The unusual instrumentation got recorded in an exceptional way using one special main microphone to capture the beauty of this unique sound experience and the high art of the Wiener Klassik.

Edoardo Torbianelli, pianoforte
After achieving the diploma in Trieste for piano and harpsichord he studied music in Antwerp and Tillburg. Specialisation on historical performance practice and technique and aesthetics in the tradition of Classical and Romantic piano-playing. Edoardo Torbianell plays often on historic pianofortes provided by important European collections of musical instruments. His successful performances have been received with enormous enthusiasm by the international press and the audiences world-wide. Besides various awards he received already two times the prestigious Diapason d’or. He works and performs together with the well-known artists Thomas Albertus Irnberger, Pierre-André Taillard, Lyndon Watts, Sergio Azzolini, Amandine Beyer, Leila Schayegh, Chiara Banchini, Cristoph Coin, Maria Christina Kiehr and Gerd Türk. He works as a lecturer and teacher for pianoforte, chamber music and historical performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, at the High School of Music in Berne and at the University La Sorbonne in Paris.

Katharina Suske, oboe
In the centre of her works stands extensive chamber music experience and the artistic direction of the early music ensemble DIE FREITAGSAKADEMIE based in Berne, Switzerland. She studied Baroque flute and Baroque oboe in Vienna, Milano and Den Haag with Ku Ebbinge, Hans Peter Westermann and Pedro Memelsdorff.
Katharina Suske performs with world-known ensembles and orchestras for early music including I Barrocchisti (under the direction of D. Fasolis), Drottningholms Barockensemble (under the direction of  A. Oestman), Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Opera orchestra Zurich „La Scintilla“ (under the direction of W. Christie, A. Fischer), Concilium Musicum Wien (under the direction of  P. Angerer), Wiener Akademie (under the direction of M. Haselböck), Venice Baroque Orchestra, London Baroque and Collegium Wartberg.
WINTER & WINTER has produced and released the following recording works with the early music ensemble DIE FREITAGSAKADEMIE: »Travelogues of Italy« CD N° 910 158-2, the audio film (cinema for closed eyes) »Brandenburg Concertos, The Celebration« CD N° 910 194-2 [2 CDs] and the analog sound language  »Brandenburg Concertos, The Selection«, only available as LP N° 917 194-1 and as download.

Pierre-André Taillard, clarinet
Pierre-André Taillard studied clarinet with Hans Rudolf Stalder and piano with Klaus Linder and Jürg Wyttenbach in Basel, Switzerland. Already during his artistic education he started performing Baroque clarinet and playing together with his teachers in various ensembles and orchestra like Concentus Musicus Wien, La Petite Bande, Les Musiciens du Louvre and other under the direction of N. Harnoncourt, F. Brüggen, J. Savall, F. Bernius and P. Herreweghe. His solo performance of Mozart's clarinet concerto in collaboration with the ensemble Concerto Köln was a great success with the public and critics.
Since 1989 Pierre-André Taillard teaches at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as well as at the Conservatoire of La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Olivier Darbellay, horn
Olivier Darbellay grew up in Berne in a family of musicians. He studied violon cello with Thomas Müller and David Johnston and also natural horn at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. International performances as a soloist with Südwestdeutschen Philharmonie, the Tokyo Sinfonietta, the Philharmonique de Liège, the Philharmonia Zurich, the Zürcher Kammerorchester and the Basler Kammerorchester, the symphony orchestra Bern and Biel, as well as the Camerata Bern under the direction of conductors such as Heinrich Schiff, Heinz Holliger, Fabio Luisi and Mario Venzago. He is an enthusiastic performer of chamber music in various groups. Contemorary composers commission new solo and also ensemble works for him. In 2006 he played the premier of Heinz Holliger’s Duo »Induuchlen« for natural horn and Countertenor.

Lyndon Watts, bassoon
Since 1989 Lyndon Watts from Australia performs as the principal bassoonist of the Munich Philharmonic. He studied bassoon in Sydney and later also Baroque bassoon with Alberto Grazzi in Verona. 2002 he received the special award for the best interpretation of the commissioned work by contemporary music composer Heinz Holliger at the ARD International Music Competition. 2005 he was appointed as lecturer for bassoon at the Might School of Music in Berne. He has also taught international master classes, seminars and workshops in England, Portugal, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore and Australia.