Home     Print

 LV    RU    EN  

Concert cycles

IL GIARDINO ARMONICO (Italy)

Il Giardino Armonico, founded in Milanin 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: Musica e Poesia a San Maurizio, Styriarte Festival in Graz, Easter and Whitsunday Festival in Salzburg, Osterklang in Vienna, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Rheingau Festival, Settimane Musicali Internazionali in Lucerne, Festival de Musique in Montreux-Vevey etc.

The ensemble 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 and many others.

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 dedicated an Artist Portrait to the ensemble with pieces by Vivaldi, Bach, Albinoni, Pachelbel and Torelli.

Many acclaimed soloists perform regularly with il Giardino Armonico: 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.

Baroque Superstars. (...) If the world of baroque music performance was a mountain, Italy's Il Giardino Armonico ensemble would be perched within walking distance of the peak.

The Record Entertainment


 

Giovanni Antonin
conductor and flutist

The recorder playing of Giovanni Antonini in the two concertos was as exciting a performance as I've heard on any instrument, anywhere. The Globe and Mail 

Giovanni Antonini is considered to be one of the leading personalities in the world of baroque music. He is a founder member ofthe ensemble “il Giardino Armonico”, which he has led since 1989 and with whom he has appeared as conductor, as soloist on the recorder and soloist on the baroque transverse flute at the most important festivals in Europe, United States, Canada, South America, Japan, Malesia and Australia cooperating among others with artists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Sara Mingardo, Eva Mei, Pieter Wispelwey, Christoph Prégardien, Christophe Coin, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Viktoria Mullova, Giuliano Carmignola and Christian Tetzlaff.

He has received the Grammy Award 2000 as conductor of the CD “Vivaldi Album” recorded for Decca.

He has conducted Monteverdi’s L'Orfeo at the Piccolo Teatro Studio in Milanand at Styriarte Festival in Graz. He has performed Pergolesi's La serva padrona at the Zurich Tonhalle, at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Francesco B. Conti’s oratorium Il martirio di San Lorenzo at Salzburg Festival (1998, first representation worldwide). He is one of the guest conductors of the Milan Bach Festival, at which it is planned to perform a complete cycle of Bach's cantatas. Giovanni Antonini has conducted G.F. Händel’s Agrippina at Styriarte Festival in Grazand in March 2001 G.F. Händel’s oratorium Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, in Lucerneand in several Spanish theatres.

Giovanni Antonini is often invited to conduct other orchestras such as Camerata Academica of Salzburg, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica of Tenerife, Orquesta Sinfonica of Galizia and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. He has an intense cooperation with the Kammerorchester Basel, which he recently conducted very successfully at Alte Oper in Frankfurt, and with which he is planning some recordings. In 2005 he will also conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Sir Simon Rattle invited Giovanni Antonini to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker in January 2004 with pieces of the baroque and classical period: the Berliner Zeitung defined his interpretation as “simply ingenuous” and also the Tagesspiegel has praisen his concerts in Berlin. He recently conducted with great success the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Bremenwith a program dedicated to Haydn.

Together with il Giardino Armonico he has been for several years under exclusive contract to TELDEC, for which he has recorded numerous CDs of instrumental works by A. Vivaldi and other Italian composers of 18th Century. His interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons won the prizes Diapason d’Or, Choc de la Musique and Grand Prix des Discophiles. Giovanni Antonini also recorded J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and a CD with music by H.I.F. Biber and M. Locke. These recordings have received many important international awards as Premio della Fondazione Cini, Caecilia Award, Diapason d’Or, Choc de la Musique, Prix des Discophiles 1994, Gramophone Award 1996 and the Echo-Preis 1998. The CD entitled Vivaldi Album recorded for DECCA with Cecilia Bartoli has won the Grammy Award. In Autumn 2000 has been published the CD Viaggio musicale with Italian music of the 17th century. The CD entitled Musica Barocca has been released in autumn 2001 and has been awarded with the French prize “10 de Répertoire”.


 il Giardino Armonico

press reviews – rassegna stampa – Pressespiegel

Neue Luzerner Zeitung  -  8/03/2004
Die Musiker des italienischen Originalklang-Ensembles “Il Giardino Armonico” spielten die Werke unter Giovanni Antonini am Freitag im KKL mit wunderbarem Reichtum an Klangfarben, mit sensibelsten dynamischen Differenzierungen und mit ansteckender Spielfreude. (...) Die vielen Soli geben den Musikern eine Plattform zu bravourösen Auftritten, aber auch zu intimer und feinst ausziselierter Zwiesprache. (...) Es herrschte im Ensemble eine Atmosphäre der Freiheit, aber auch des sicht- und hörbaren Einverständnisses, wie sie einen so beglückenden Konzertaben erst ermöglichen kann.

Il Tempo  -  21/12/2003
Gli esecutori del “Giardino Armonico” hanno la dote non comune di saper movimentare la musica del Sei-Settecento, cioè di porgerla nella loro essenza di base: il nuovo, rivoluzionario dinamismo espressivo, presente del resto anche nella coeva arte figurativa. I movimenti del concerto di Giuseppe Sammartini sono risultati così diversamente animati dai soliti e realmente chiaroscurati, in alternanza, da un’anima, un ritmo che li ha fatti palpitare, riscoprire emozionanti

Bonner Rundschau  -  2/10/2003
Wenn Antonini, ein Star des Originalklangs, auf der Sopran-Flöte spielt, kommt er erst richtig in sein Element. Was er dann mit seinen beiden Griffhänden zauberte war schlichtweg übernatürlich. Was für ein Getriller und was leistet er an Modulationen, über die die Flöte eigentlich physikalisch gar nicht verfügen sollte. (...) Es gab einen Riesenbeifall – eine Handvoll Musiker wie ein einziges Temperamentsbündel.

Frankfurter Rundschau  -  10/10/2003
Das 1985 gegründete Barock-Ensemble „il Giardino Armonico“ und seinen agilen Leiter Giovanni Antonini muss man einfach gehört oder besser erlebt haben: Sie stürzen sich so hungrig und klangperfektionistisch auf ihr Material, als gälte es, jeden Ton neu zu entdecken.

Il Corriere di Siena  -  24/02/2003
La bravura del gruppo strumentale „il Giardino Armonico“ ha compiuto il miracolo e il concerto chigiano è stato eccezionale. (…) La più bella scoperta è stata quella di ascoltare una versione interpretativa che non aveva niente di improvvisato. Tutto è risultato scorrevole e abbellito da un trattamento nobile, ponderato e sublimato da una dedizione rivelatrice di talenti musicali non comuni.

The New York Times  -  22/02/2001
Though Il Giardino Armonico specializes in Baroque music there is nothing stuffy or pedantic about the dynamic playing of these 14 musicians. Giovanni Antonini, their wiry, shaggy-haired director, is not just a stylish conductor but a virtuoso on the flautino, a Baroque instrument close to a soprano recorder. In the Concerto in C, it was amazing to hear volleys of runs coming from an instrument with such an endearingling pipsqueak sound that looks like a fable piccolo.

Le Soir, Nantes  -  8/01/2003
Au rang des pionniers du renouveau baroque italien, on ne manquera pas de rendre hommage au Giardino Armonico. Ce célèbre ensemble milanais passe pour collectionner les sensations fortes en peaufinant à la fois son jeu d’ensemble depuis 1985. (...) Leur CD des «Quatre Saisons», transfigurées de A à Z avec un sens des contrastes qui tient parfois du «riff» des rockeurs. Décoiffant!

BBC Music Magazine  -  March 2001
Il Giardino Armonico deserves full credit for creating such an imaginative and coherent programme. [...] The Milan-based players clearly relish the music’s audacity, and quite apart from their admirable technique, they draw on an impressive emotive range - from tender intimacy to brazen exuberance.

The National Post  -  16/01/2001
With about 100 concerts a year, most of them outside of Italy, they've become one of the most sought-after baroque orchestras on the international scene. And the most important thing about Il Giardino's fairy-tale success story is that their fame is well-deserved.

Der Standard  -  26/07/2000
Das Orchester ist original mit alten Instrumenten bestückt: Der Giardino Armonico aus Mailand, der im Vorjahr den Orfeo Monteverdis zu klanglichem Leben erweckt hatte, ließ unter den plastisch formenden Händen Giovanni Antoninis die Partitur des "Sassone" (der später in London als "Handel" zum großen Angelsachsen wurde) aufblühen - in selbständigen Orchesterpartien ebenso wie zur Begleitung, auch in Instrumentalsoli, der Singstimmen.

El Mundo  -  12/06/2000
Il Giardino Armonico es un grupo que siempre suena muy correctamente. La batuta de Antonini es precisa, clara y sabe frasear y mantener la tension del discurso teatral que subyace al drama martirial.

The Strad  -  July 2001 (interview to Viktoria Mullova)
When describing Il Giardino Armonico's recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, her voice crescendos and she spontaneously leaps out of her chair to find me a copy. "Brilliant, crazy and unique!" she exclaims.

The Record Entertainment  -  04/01/2001
Baroque Superstars. (...) If the word of baroque music performance was a mountain, Italy's Il Giardino Armonico ensemble would be perched within walking distance of the peak.

The National Post  -  17/01/2001
It was an evening rich in imagination and colour.

Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien  -  November 2001
Für diese Ohren, findet sie, biete das Originalklang-Ensemble „Il Giardino Armonico“ die denkbar besten Reize. Die Italianer sind eine Lieblingsgruppe von Viktoria Mullova, ein „Ensemble mit wundervollen Ideen, die auch für mich anregend sind. Sie trauen sich etwas, stoßen unbefangen in Extreme vor, oder“ - lassen wir es Viktoria Mullova im Original auf Englisch sagen -„they just go for it!“. So schließt sich für Viktoria Mullova der Kreis über die Jahrhunderte hinweg. Ob Vivaldi „à la Giardino“ oder die Bee Gees „Through the Looking Glass“: entscheidend ist, daß es Musik für unsere Ohren, Musik für heute ist.

San Francisco Cronicle  -  03/04/2000
Whatever the repertoire, there was no denying the splendor of this group's execution. From awesome flights of solo showmanship to magnificently blended ensemble playing, these musicians brought spirit and care to everything they touched.

Midi Libre  -  07/02/2002
Il Giardino Armonico, plein de fogue. Une malle aux trésors: duels, complicités, passions. Une flûte démoniaque. [...] Dans l'exécution, il y a une passion, une facilité tecnique qui est à la fois celle des grands interprètes et celle des artistes qui jouent beaucoup et souvent.

répertoire  -  October 2000
Viva Vivaldi - 10 de Répertoire
... il faut bien dire que le discours instrumental est d'une beauté et d'une concentration remarquables. [...] On retiendra aussi un orchestre qui démontre que l'on peut jouer vite et piano de construire un éventail de nuances progressives, des variations de tempo cohérentes et pas seulement dictées par le goût des eddets gratuits (suivez mon regard vers d'autres Italiens).

Diapason  -  October 2001
Viva Vivaldi - Diapason d'Or
Que dire des deux concertos où brillent Luca Pianca et Giovanni Antonini, si ce n'est, pour manier la redondance et risquer le pléonasme, qu'ils sont un régal de roi?

The Gazette  -  17/01/2002
The eight men played with delicate refinement, superb co-ordination and blending, and the violins never sounded scratchy or out of tune. Thus, many flowers in their harmonic garden displayed nice colours and fanciful shapes.

Musica!
Musica Barocca - Scelto da Musica!
Difficile però nascondere il piacere e l'eccitazione quando si ascoltano le loro spumeggianti interpretazioni ricche di grinta e di verve e pervase da un parossistico virtuosismo. (...) Da questo disco emerge - soprattutto negli autori veneziani - una lettura solare e aperta, briosa e capace di esprimere con grande intensità quegli affetti variegati e cangianti che - se correttamente eseguiti - sanno regalare un'aura teatrale anche alle opere strumentali più insospettabili. (...) Un disco che raccomando a tutti, principianti alle prime armi ed esperti desiderosi di accostarsi a una "nuova" concezione del Barocco.

The TorontoStar
Or, to change metaphor, these Italians made music the way one imagines they make love, drink wine and eat pasta. It is all done with consuming zest for life. (...) Frankly, I've never encountered so physically demonstrative a recorder player. You'd have thought there was a basket in front of him containing a reluctant cobra. Over the top playing? Perhaps, but are we in a position to deny the possibility that the Italian audiences who first encountered this music, heard it performed any less lustily?

Clásica
Desde ese momento y hasta la fecha, sus integrantes tienen fama de énfants terribles del movimiento historicista, y con sus instrumentos barrocos estan reseueltos a crear un nuevo lenguaje pera redescubrisr la musica del seicento y el settecento. Ese nuevo lenguaje se fue desarollando lentamente, desde la creacion del grupo en 1985, y se ha ido refinando hasta hacer de Il Giardino Armonico uno de los conjuntos historicistas de referencia obligada en la enscena actual. Su peculiar sonido - una suerte de paradojico historicismo de vanguardia - genera polémicas y crea un estilo personal que pretende recuperar el dramatismo de la musica barroca, su teatralidad y sus gestos.

Kommersant (translation of the Italian Consolate in St. Petersburg)  -  25/10/2001
Tra le mura dell'Opera, Il Giardino Armonico faceva affermare il concetto della possibilità senza limiti del canto degli strumenti, il che portava ad un altro pensiero: quello sulla povertà delle capacità corali della voce umana sì maestosamente integrata dalla maestria di compositori antichi.

Il Giorno  -  16/02/01
Si va al concerto con la segreta speranza di volare con la musica. Qualche miracolosa volta succede. Con Katia e Marielle Labèque ed il Giardino Armonico alla Società del Quartetto, l'altra sera, è successo.

The Record  -  15/01/2001
In fact, the intuitive sense of togetherness is one of the most remarkable features of this group. Their entraces were impeccable, dynamic changes were perfectly matched, and soloists and continuo players maintained constant communication by means of frequent eye contact, lots of swaying and gesturing, and even, on occasion, some energetic foot-tapping. (...) The group was called back for two encores... and received three standing ovations accompained by bravos and some unrestrained cheers.

Amadeus  -  March 20002
Il tutto interpretato da un gruppo che è riuscito a imporsi a livello internazionale come pochi altri ensemble italiani, ed è riuscito a farlo con una propria identità. Affascinante per molti aspetti: dall'estro dal sapore improvvisativo, alle istantanee accensioni del colore, ai picchi di vitalità, alla ricchezza del basso continuo, a quel senso di canto strumentale profondo che appartiene a tutto il complesso, un gruppo che sembra respirare insieme tanta è la sintonia.

Folha Ilustrada  -  29/08/2001
Giardino Armonico faz barroco molto sexy. (...) Es o ornamentos! (...) Dão vontade de gritar "bravo" ou "gol!". (...) O barroco, quem diria, pode ser isso: jardim, delicia dança. A plateia não faltou gente para gritar "bravo!", e um solitario, inaudivel, "gol".

Kommersant (translation of the Italian Consolate in St. Petersburg)  -  12/10/2000
Uno straordinario spettacolo dato dagli italiani in Russia. (...) Era difficile credere che il celebre gruppo musicale milanese "Il Giardino Armonico" sarebbe venuto al Festival di Musica Antica di San Pietroburgo, che il concerto avrebbe effettivamente avuto luogo e che i musicisti avrebbero dimostrato "dal vivo" quella qualità di esecuzione che ci colpisce durante l'ascolto del CD. Il gruppo è arrivato grazie al Consolato Generale d'Italia in San Pietroburgo, il concerto ha avuto luogo e le musiche, suonate "dal vivo", si sono rivelate ancora più impressionanti che sui CD. (...) La maestria dell'esecuzione è stata una condizione obbligatoria, ma non uno scopo, l'arte di improvvisazione - un seguito naturale della padronanza magistrale dello stile, eccessi stravaganti (cadenze inverosimili, passaggi sofisticati) - prova della passione per l'esibirsi in pubblico che, evidentemente, sta nel sangue dei musicisti italiani.

Salzburger Nachrichten  -  02/04/2002
Darauf freilich muss der Interpret erst einmal kommen: Der "Giardino Armonico" unter seinem spiritus rector Giovanni Antonini, diese musikantische Wundertruppe aus dem Süden, spielt stimmig im Grossen wie im Kleinen, springlebendig und doch zugleich einschmeichelnd fürs Ohr.

L'Adige  -  12/02/2002
Bastano poche note del canone di Pachelbel per capire l'alto livello del Giardino Armonico: poche note che emozionano, e che riportano ad un'originaria, spontanea bellezza una pagina frequentatissima e sovente abusata. (...) E' sempre fresco, interessante e convincente l'approccio alla musica del Giardino Armonico. (...) Due gli aspetti che colpiscono su tutto: la costante ricerca timbrica e il senso continuo di movimento, entrambi naturalissimi, mai costruiti o artificiosi.

Tages-Anzeiger Zürich  -  27/09/2000
Ein Weltklasse-Mezzo (Cecilia Bartoli, N.d.R.) und ein Weltklasse-Ensemble. (...) Ein tadelloser Giardino Armonico dialogisierte mit der Sängerin und blieb ihr in Sachen Virtuosität nichts schuldig. Der musikalische Leiter Antonini stieß als Flautino-Solist in Grenzbereiche der Virtuosität und des Ausdrucks vor. Das Violinduo in den „Zeffiretti“ war von unüberbietbarer Delikatesse.

 

Other articles (A), reviews (R) and interviews (I) have recently been published in:Grammophone (A)  -  La Nacion (A, I)  -  Wiener Zeitung (R)  -  Kommersand (I, R)Jurnal do Brasil (I)  -  Die Presse (R)  -  O Estado de São Paulo (A)Neue Luzerner Zeitung (R)  -  Schaffhauser Nachrichten (R)Giornale di Bergamo (R)  -  L'Eco di Bergamo (R)  -  Gazzetta di Parma (R)www.klassik.com (R)  -  www.diepresse.com (R)

www.ilgiardinoarmonico.com

 


Concert takes place:

Date, time, place

Concert

Ticket prices

26.09.2004  18:00
Latvian National Theatre

IL GIARDINO ARMONICO (Italy)
THE FIRST TIME IN RIGA! The Grammy Award winner, this instrumental ensemble is famous for its completely new style performing Baroque music.

 

View your order history
Your email:

© Herman Braun Foundation | Site created by Profero, 2002-2011