il Giardino Armonico
Chamber Orchestras
il Giardino Armonico, was founded in Milan in 1985 and brings together musicians from some of Europe’s leading music institutions, all of them specialized in performing on period instruments. The ensemble’s repertory is principally concentrated on the 17th and 18th centuries. Depending on the demands of each programme, the group will consist of anywhere from 3 to 35 musicians.
il Giardino Armonico is regularly invited to festivals all over the world and has performed in the most important concert halls. Among them can be counted the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall and Barbican in London, Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin, Glinka Hall and Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Oji Hall in Tokyo, Library of Congress in Washington, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Sydney Opera House, Disney Hall in Los Angeles and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
For many years il Giardino Armonico had an exclusive contract with TELDEC Classics. The group’s recordings of works by Vivaldi – among which the Four Seasons – and other 18th-century composers have met with widespread acclaim and received several major awards (Award “Fondazione Cini” of Venice, Caecilia Award in Belgium, Diapason d’Or, Choc de la Musique, Grand Prix des Discophiles). Released under the title Il Proteo, their recording of several of Vivaldi’s double and triple concertos for cello and orchestra, with Christophe Coin as guest soloist, received a Gramophone Award in October 1996 and the Diapason d’Or. The Brandenburg Concertos were awarded with the Echo-Preis 1998 and a CD dedicated to works by M. Locke and H.I.F. Biber won the Diapason d’Or 1999. In 1999 appeared the acclaimed Vivaldi Album with Cecilia Bartoli for Decca, which won a Grammy Award. In autumn 2000 their CD Viaggio Musicale of Italian music of the 17th century was released and in 2001 the CD Musica Barocca. Both were awarded the French prize “10 de Répertoire”. In December 2002 Teldec dedicated a CD in their series of Artist Portraits to the ensemble. In 2005 two CDs were released: La Casa del Diavolo (works by Boccherini, Locatelli, Gluck, C.P.E. and W.F. Bach) with the French label Naïve, and a CD of Vivaldi Violin Concerts with Viktoria Mullova for Onyx which won a Diapason d’Or. More recently the group has recorded two CD’s of Concerti per Violoncello by Vivaldi with Christophe Coin for Naïve.
il Giardino Armonico has received the highest acclaim for both concerts and their staged opera productions, among them, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Handel’s Agrippina, Il Trionfo del Tempo del Disinganno, La Resurrezione and Aci, Galatea e Polifemo and Pergolesi’s La serva padrona. The ensemble can regularly be heard performing with such acclaimed soloists as Cecilia Bartoli, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Sara Mingardo, Bernarda Fink, Magdalena Kožená, Viktoria Mullova, Christophe Coin and Giuliano Carmignola.
Since April 2007 il Giardino Armonico is Resident Baroque Group of the Centro Cultural Miguel Delibes in Valladolid. In May 2008 il Giardino Armonico signed an exclusive recording agreement with DECCA/L’Oiseau-Lyre. As an exclusive group of this record label the ensemble has continued its innovative approach with celebrations of music by Handel around the composers’ anniversary year (2009). Their new releases saw il Giardino Armonico exploring Haendel’s Concerti Grossi Op VI, some of the finest examples of Baroque orchestral concertos, and the cantata Pianto di Maria, with mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink.
Again in 2009 the cooperation with Cecilia Bartoli lead to the project Sacrificium, including il Giardino Armonico’s last Decca recording (awarded the Platinum Disc in France and Belgium within the first three months) and a long European tour.
The last CD released in December 2010 is again a cooperation with Naïve with Antonio Vivaldi’s opera Ottone in Villa, which is currently achieving great success and which was the Diapason d'Or in January 2011.
In 2011 il Giardino Armonico was on tour in the United States and Canada, and it joined the Pfingstens Festival in Salzburg with Roberta Invernizzi; later this year the group will co-operate with the cellist Giovanni Sollima (September 2011) and with Viktoria Mullova (November 2011).
Cecilia Bartoli, Artistic Director of Salzburg Pfingstens Festival from 2012, has invited il Giardino Armonico, and Giovanni Antonini as conductor, to perform with her Handel’s opera Giulio Cesare di Handel during the 2012 edition of the Festival, and at the Salzburg Festival in August.
SEASON 2011/2012
Giovanni Antonini
The established conductor Giovanni Antonini is well known for his interpretation of baroque and classical repertoire. Born in Milan, he studied at the Civica Scuola di Musica and at the Centre de Musique Ancienne in Geneva.
Antonini is a founder member of the baroque ensemble “il Giardino Armonico”, which he has been leading since 1989. With this ensemble he has appeared as conductor and soloist on the recorder and baroque transverse flute in Europe, United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Japan and Malaysia. He has performed with many prestigious artists including Christophe Coin, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola. His superb collaboration with Cecilia Bartoli for the “Vivaldi Album” won him a Grammy Award in 2000.
Antonini’s achievements have led him to be in great demand as a guest conductor appearing with orchestras including Camerata Salzburg, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Rundfunksinfonieorchester Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.
In 2004 Sir Simon Rattle invited Antonini to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker in works from the Classical and Baroque periods: the Tagesspiegel praised the concerts and the Berliner Zeitung defined his interpretation as “simply ingenious”.
In the 2009/10 season Antonini conducted City of Birmingham Symphony, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Camerata Salzburg, Berner Symphony, Tonkünstlerorchester and the Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France; in September 2010 he received a new commitment with Berliner Philharmoniker.
Antonini’s opera productions have included Handel’s Acis, Galatea e Polifemo in Vienna, Salzburg and Salamanca and Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio segreto in Bolzano, Trento, Rovigo and Liege. In the 08/09 season he conducted Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Handel’s Alcina at Teatro La Scala in Milano.
With il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini has recorded numerous CDs of instrumental works by Vivaldi (including The Four Seasons), other 17th and 18th Century Italian composers, J.S. Bach (Brandenburg Concertos), Biber and Locke for Teldec. Their CD with Viktoria Mullova, (Vivaldi’s Violin Concertos) won the prestigious Diapason d’Or 2005 for baroque instrumental music. With the French label Naïve they recorded “La Casa del Diavolo”, Vivaldi’s “Concerti per violoncello” with Christophe Coin, and Vivaldi’s opera Ottone in Villa.
Giovanni Antonini’s recording with il Giardino Armonico have all been awarded many prizes such as Gramophone Award, Premio Fondazione Cini, Echo Klassik , Caecilia Award, Diapason d’Or, Choc de la Musique, 10 de Repertoire , Gran Prix de Discophiles.
Since May 2008 Il Giardino Armonico has a contract with Decca. Their recording of Handel’s Concerti Grossi won the Echo prize in Germany and their most recent recording ‘Il Pianto di Maria – the Virgin’s Lament’ with mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, has been greatly received. Their last recording ‘Sacrificium’, again with Cecilia Bartoli, has been released in September 2009.
Giovanni Antonini continues his successful collaboration with the Kammerorchester Basel, in particular with their project of the recording of Beethoven Symphonies for Sony.
He was recently named Artistic Director for the famous international Festival Wratislavia Cantans for the 2012 season onwards.
SAISON 2011/2012
