


GCD923414
Originally recorded in February 2020
Classical
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About
Violinist Fabio Biondi has a singular capacity for finding something new and exciting in the music of Antonio Vivaldi whenever he considers it, a prodigious feat which he demonstrates with Concerti per La Pietà, a new collection of works calling for a variety of demanding solo challenges, superbly met by Biondi and his colleagues from Europa Galante. In his Venetian years the well-spring of Vivaldi inventiveness was fed by the composer working with one of the leading orchestras of early eighteenth-century Europe: the one at the Ospedale della Pietà, the charitable institution which took in, cared for –and educated – girls who had been orphaned or abandoned. Within the ospedale were nurtured instrumental virtuosos – known today only by their “sporting nicknames”: Bettina della viola, Margherita del arpa doppia, Lucieta della tromba, etc. Calling variously for solo violin, two violins, lute, cello, organ, or viola d’amore (Biondi plays an unreconstructed 1758 Vinaccia instrument), the concertos recorded here are drawn from across the thirty years in which Vivaldi worked at the ospedale. The freshness and personalness of Fabio Biondi’s music-making with Europa Galante has itself now been in evidence for a remarkable three decades and this new recording won’t disappoint listeners ready to have their preconceptions challenged yet be stimulated by consummate musicianship. An added attraction with this new Glossa release comes with the discussion of the programme, written by Pierre Élie Mamou, which succeeds in uniting Titian, Paul Verlaine, Rembrandt and Mathias Énard in a celebration of the music of Antonio Vivaldi!

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Reviews
“For their 30th birthday Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante return to their beginnings, to Antonio Vivaldi. They were the first historically informed ensemble in Italy to make a recording of the Four Seasons, and from then on they enjoyed a great success and developed into one of the best European ensembles for the baroque repertoire.
To this day, Biondi’s interpretations have kept all of their freshness and vitality. Prove is this new release with Vivaldi’s Concerti per Pieta, which comprises two world premiere recordings. Fabio Biondi is still a wonderful conductor and virtuoso on the violin. The excellent musical quality is matched by the quality of the sound recording, so that this Vivaldi CD is highly recommendable.” *****
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