First Sunday Music

Posted on 01/03/2009 9:59:42 PM PST by HoosierHawk

Antonio Vivaldi

His Life

Vivaldi was born March 4, 1678, in Venice, and was trained by his father, a violinist at Saint Mark's Cathedral. Ordained a priest in 1703, Vivaldi began teaching that year at the Ospedale della Pietà, a conservatory for orphaned girls. He was associated with the Pietà, usually as music director, until 1740, training the students, composing concertos and oratorios for weekly concerts, and meanwhile establishing an international reputation. From 1713 on, Vivaldi was also active as an opera composer and producer in Venice and traveled to Rome, Mantua (Mantova), and elsewhere to oversee performances of his operas. In about 1740 he accepted a position at the court of Emperor Charles VI in Vienna.

Read more of Vivaldi's life and times

Il Giardino Armonico

il Giardino Armonico, founded in Milan in 1985, brings together a number of graduates from some of Europe’s leading colleges of music, all of whom have specialised in playing on period instruments. The ensemble’s repertory is concentrated in the main on the 17th and 18th centuries. Depending on the demands of each programme, the group will consist of anything from 3 to 30 musicians.

il Giardino Armonico is regularly invited to many festivals all over the world as Musica e Poesia a San Maurizio in Milan, Styriarte Festival in Graz, Salzburger Pfingsten Festival, Osterklang in Vienna, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Rheingau Festival, Internationale Musikfestwochen in Luzern, Festival de Musique de Montreux-Vevey and has performed in the most important concert halls. Among them are Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin, Glinka Hall and Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Konserthus in Oslo, 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.

il Giardino Armonico has been under exclusive contract to TELDEC Classics for a number of years. Its various recordings of works by Vivaldi – among which the Four Seasons – and other 18th-century composers have met with widespread acclaim on the part of audiences and critics alike and have 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 the 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 the Grammy Award. In autumn 2000 has been published Viaggio Musicale (10 de Répertoire) with Italian music of the 17th century. The CD entitled Musica Barocca has been released in autumn 2001 and has won the French prize “10 de Répertoire”. In December 2002 Teldec has published an Artist Portrait of the ensemble.

il Giardino Armonico plays regularly with many acclaimed soloists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Eva Mei, Sumi Jo, Sara Mingardo, Lynne Dawson, Bernarda Fink, Christoph Prégardien, Véronique Gens, Christophe Coin, Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola both in concerts as in opera stage productions such as Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Handel’s Agrippina, Il Trionfo del Tempo del Disinganno and La Resurrezione, Pergolesi’s La serva padrona and J.A. Hasse’s Oratorio I Pellegrini al Sepolcro di Nostro Signore.