Concerto Italiano is an Italian early music ensemble well known for their interpretations of Monteverdi and Vivaldi, among others.
The historically informed performance ensemble was formed by the harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini, and made its Rome debut with Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto in 1984. Since then, Concerto Italiano has recorded Monteverdi madrigals, which have won numerous awards, including the Gramophone Award three times. Other major international awards garnered by this ensemble include Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik , Prix de la Nouivelle Académie du disque , Premio internationale del disco Antonio Vivaldi (Cini Foundation), and the Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros .
Concerto Italiano is under exclusive contract with OPUS 111, which is now under the umbrella of the large French label, Naïve. Most recently, with conjunction with the National University Library in Turin, Concerto Italiano has been recording all the operas and concertos of Vivaldi, many of which have not been performed for over 300 years. Highlights include Concerto Italiano's recordings of the opera L'Olimpiade , La Senna Festeggiante , Le Quattro Stagioni (hailed as one of the best versions of the work by Gramophone), Vespri Solenni per la Festa dell'Assunzione di Maria Vergine (a reconstruction of a possible Vespers for the Ascension of the Virgin Mary and 2004 Gramophone winner for Baroque Vocal), and in 2004, an entire CD devoted to Vivaldi's Concerti per Archi .
René Jacobs is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor but in recent years has become renowned as a conductor of Baroque and early Classical opera.
Federico Maria Sardelli is an Italian conductor, historicist, composer, musicologist, and flautist. He founded the medieval ensemble Modo Antiquo in 1984. In 1987, Modo Antiquo also became a baroque orchestra, debuting with the performance of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Ballet des Saisons in front of an audience of about five thousand.
The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. They are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy award, and referred to as the Oscars for classical music. They are widely regarded as the most influential and prestigious classical music awards in the world. According to Matthew Owen, national sales manager for Harmonia Mundi USA, "ultimately it is the classical award, especially worldwide."
Sandrine Piau is a French soprano. She is particularly renowned in Baroque repertoire although also excels in Romantic and modernist lieder and mélodies. She has the versatility to perform works from Vivaldi, Handel, Rameau to Schumann, Debussy, and Poulenc. She has made numerous studio recordings, primarily with Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, and Alpha since 2018.
La Serenissima is a British early music/period instrument ensemble founded in 1994 by violinist Adrian Chandler, who has served as the group's director since its creation. Taking its name from La Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia, the ensemble specializes in the music of Venetian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) and his contemporaries.
Rinaldo Alessandrini is a virtuoso on Baroque keyboards, including harpsichord, fortepiano, and organ. He is founder and conductor of the Italian early music ensemble Concerto Italiano, performing music of Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Couperin, Bach, and others. He is considered a foremost interpreter of early Italian opera.
AVIE Records is a UK-based independent classical music recording company founded in 2002 by Simon Foster and Melanne Mueller who devised a unique business model based on artist ownership. Foster and Mueller continue to run the company together with executives Barry McCann and Steve Winn. The label maintains offices in the UK and US.
Philippe Jaroussky is a French countertenor. He began his musical career with the violin, winning an award at the Versailles conservatory, and then took up the piano before turning to singing.
Lorenzo Regazzo, is an opera singer. His voice can be categorised as bass, bass-baritone or basso cantante. He is especially well known for interpreting Baroque, Classical, and bel canto repertoire. Among the qualities frequently noted by the critical press are his virtuosic coloratura technique, sumptuous tone, and vivid stage presence.
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, C.M., C.Q. is a Canadian coloratura contralto. She first came to the world's attention in 2000 when she became the first Canadian to win first prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium. Since then Lemieux has established herself as one of the finest contraltos currently singing on the classical music stage, appearing with some of the world's best orchestras and singing with many great opera companies. Lemieux is admired for possessing an unusually flexible and beautiful contralto voice that does not have the heaviness that is often associated with her particular voice type. For this reason, Lemieux has become a favourite among lovers of Baroque opera and she is noted for her portrayal of characters in the operas of Handel and Vivaldi in particular. Her voice is admired for its richness, warmth and resonance and for its expressiveness and use of many different tone colours. Lemieux is also praised by critics for her stage presence and communicative power.
Armida al campo d'Egitto is an opera in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to a libretto by Giovanni Palazzo. It was first performed during the Carnival season of 1718 at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice. Vivaldi's version is different from the more than 50 operas whose themes derive in varying degrees from the story of Rinaldo and Armida in Torquato Tasso's epic poem La Gerusalemme liberata. Unlike the more than 50 operas based on the romance of Rinaldo and Armida, Vivaldi's version starts during previous events before the war against the Crusaders. Armida was revived for the Carnival season of 1738, with much of the music rewritten, and arias by Leonardo Leo added. Act II of the original version of the opera is now lost.
Jean-Christophe Spinosi is a French conductor and violinist, the founder of French orchestra Ensemble Matheus.
Martin Pearlman is an American conductor, harpsichordist, composer, and early music specialist. He founded the first permanent Baroque orchestra in North America with Boston Baroque in 1973–74. Many of its original players went on to play in or direct other ensembles in what became a growing field in the American music scene. He later founded the chorus of that ensemble and has been the music director of Boston Baroque from its inception up to the present day.
Felix Ayo is a Spanish-Basque born, naturalised Italian, violinist. He is renowned as a founder of the Italian ensemble I Musici; as an internationally renowned violinist, who is often a soloist, and is a performer of chamber music; as a teacher; and as a recording artist with a career that has spanned more than fifty years.
Sara Mingardo is an Italian classical contralto who has had an active international career in concerts and operas since the 1980s. Her complete recording of Anna in Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens won a Gramophone Award and both the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording and the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album in 2002. Some of the other roles she has performed on stage or on disc include Andronico in Tamerlano, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, and the title roles in Carmen, Giulio Cesare, Riccardo Primo, and Rinaldo. She has also recorded several Vivaldi cantatas, Bach cantatas, and such concert works as Mozart's Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater, and Vivaldi's Gloria among others.
Mauricio Buraglia is a Colombian composer, recording-artist, musician-lutenist and theorbist of Italian descent, active in Paris, France.
Modo Antiquo is an Italian instrumental ensemble dedicated to the performance of Baroque, Renaissance, and Medieval music. It was founded in 1984 by Federico Maria Sardelli. Twice nominated for a Grammy award, the ensemble has an extensive discography, primarily on the Naïve, Brilliant Classics, and Tactus labels and have given the first performances in modern times of several works by Vivaldi. Modo Antiquo's larger ensemble is its Baroque orchestra led by Sardelli. It also has a smaller ensemble devoted to Medieval and Renaissance music led by Bettina Hoffmann.
Gloria Banditelli is an Italian mezzo-soprano. She debuted in La Cenerentola in Spoleto in 1979. She is well known both for late-classical early-bel canto era roles of Rossini, Cimarosa and Paisiello, and also baroque opera, such as Monteverdi and Cavalli.
Sergio Azzolini is an Italian bassoonist and music conductor.
Jill Feldman is an American soprano who has acquired an international reputation for her interpretation of medieval, baroque and classical repertoires.