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| Concerto Italiano | |
|---|---|
| Name | Concerto Italiano |
| Origin | Italy |
| Genre | Baroque music |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Label | Accent (record label), OPUS 111 (record label), Decca Records, Warner Classics |
Concerto Italiano is an Italian ensemble specializing in early music and historically informed performances of Baroque music and Renaissance music. Founded in the 1980s, the group became noted for its interpretations of Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, and Alessandro Scarlatti, combining period instruments and vocal techniques associated with the Historically informed performance movement. The ensemble has collaborated with leading soloists and conductors across Europe and the United States, securing major awards and recording series that reshaped reception of Italian early music.
Concerto Italiano was established in 1984 in Florence by conductor and musicologist Rinaldo Alessandrini in the context of renewed interest in Baroque opera and madrigal performance practice. In the late 1980s and 1990s the ensemble worked alongside institutions such as the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Teatro alla Scala, and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden to revive forgotten repertoires by composers like Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, Domenico Scarlatti, and Francesco Cavalli. Their activities intersected with festivals including the Rossini Opera Festival, the Salzburg Festival, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and the Lucerne Festival, contributing to scholarship at centers like the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and the Istituto di Studi Musicali Vincenzo Bellini. Collaborations with ensembles such as Il Giardino Armonico, Les Arts Florissants, and Harnoncourt's ensemble reflected broader European trends stemming from figures like Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt, Christopher Hogwood, and John Eliot Gardiner.
The ensemble was directed by Rinaldo Alessandrini who often led from harpsichord and organ and worked with vocal soloists drawn from across Europe, including Mark Padmore, Kathleen Battle, Dawn Upshaw, Philippe Jaroussky, and Cecilia Bartoli. Instrumentalists have included specialists in baroque violin such as Enrico Gatti, gambists like Jakob Lindberg and Marin Marais-interpreters, and continuo players linked to the traditions of Trevor Pinnock and Ton Koopman. Collaborating conductors and directors associated with the ensemble include William Christie, Jordi Savall, Bruno Weil, Franco Fagioli, and stage directors from Berlin State Opera and Opéra National de Paris. Administrative partners and record producers have hailed from Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics, and independent labels such as OPUS 111 (record label) and Accent (record label).
Concerto Italiano focuses on repertory spanning late Renaissance to late Baroque, emphasizing works by Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Domenico Scarlatti, Marco da Gagliano, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Stefano Landi. Their approach draws on sources from libraries like the Vatican Library, the Bodleian Library, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, integrating treatises by Giovanni Battista Doni, Gioseffo Zarlino, and Pier Francesco Tosi to inform ornamentation and rhetoric. Influences include performance practices advocated by Arnold Dolmetsch, Alfred Deller, and Filippo Maria Bressan, and their sound is often contrasted with the French baroque style of Les Arts Florissants and the English approach of The English Concert. Their interpretations emphasize rhetorical declamation, vocal affect, and spatial antiphony as used in venues like St Mark's Basilica, Venice and the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence.
The ensemble's discography includes award-winning recordings of Monteverdi's madrigals and vesper works, collections of Giovanni Gabrieli canzonas and sacrae symphoniae, and albums devoted to Alessandro Scarlatti cantatas. Major releases appeared on OPUS 111 (record label), Decca Records, Warner Classics, and Accent (record label), and received distribution from companies like Universal Music Group and Sony Classical. Landmark projects included complete cycles of Monteverdi's Vespers and the Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi, recorded with soloists linked to Philippe Jaroussky and ensembles such as L’Arpeggiata. Producers and engineers on their recordings have come from studios in Milan, Paris, and London, and collaborations featured scholars from the Royal College of Music, the University of Oxford, and the Università di Bologna who contributed critical editions.
Concerto Italiano toured extensively across Europe, the United States, Japan, and South America, appearing at venues including Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro Real, Palau de la Música Catalana, and the Konzerthaus Berlin. Festival appearances included the Salzburg Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Tanglewood Festival, and the Cheltenham Music Festival. They collaborated with opera houses such as Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Paris, and the Royal Opera House, and participated in cultural exchanges sponsored by organizations like the Italian Cultural Institute, European Union Cultural Programme, and diplomatic missions to Brazil and Argentina.
Critics from publications such as The Guardian (UK), The New York Times, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Gramophone (magazine), and BBC Music Magazine praised the ensemble’s clarity, stylistic intelligence, and scholarship. Awards include prizes from the Diapason d'Or, the Gramophone Award, the Echo Klassik, and recognition at the MIDEM Classical Awards. Their recordings entered year-end lists compiled by The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Le Figaro, while academic responses appeared in journals like Early Music (journal), Journal of the American Musicological Society, and Studi musicali. Cultural honors included invitations to perform for heads of state at events involving the President of Italy and programming for UNESCO heritage celebrations.
Category:Early music groups Category:Italian musical groups