Concerto Italiano
Rinaldo Alessandrini’s Concerto Italiano was born in 1984. Its history overlaps with that of the revival of early music in Italy. Monteverdi, Bach and Vivaldi were the main pins over which the group has been able to renew the language of ancient music, revealing completely a new aesthetic and rhetorical aspects. After 33 years the recordings of Concerto Italiano are still considered by critics and public, versions of reference, reflecting the definitive meaning that the group has been able to give to his efforts and his achievements.

Concerto Italiano have appeared in Utrecht (Oude Muziek Festival), Rotterdam (De Doelen, De Singel), Antwerpen e Leuven (Flandern Festival), London (Lufthansa Festival, Queen Elisabeth Hall), Edimburgh (Edimburgh Festival) Aldeburgh, Glasgow, Wien (Konzerthaus), Graz (Styriarte), Innsbruck, Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Bruxelles (Festival de Wallonie, Flandern Festival, Societè Philarmonique), Madrid (Liceo de Camara), Barcelona (Festival de Musica Antigua, Palau de la Musica), Valencia, Bilbao, Sevilla, S.Sebastian, Salamanca, Santander, Oslo (Chamber Music Festival), Bergen, Vantaa, Turku, Paris (Citè de la Musique, Theatre de la Ville, Theatre des Champs Elysèes), Beaune, Lyon, Montpellier (Festival de Radio France), Metz (Arsenal), Ambronay, Saintes, Chase-Dieux, Köln (Conservatorio e WDR), Stuttgart, Darmstadt, Roma (Accademia di S. Cecilia, Accademia Filarmonica Romana), Milano (Musica e Poesia a S. Maurizio), Ravenna, Ferrara, Torino, Spoleto (Festival dei Due Mondi), Palermo (Festival Scarlatti), Perugia, Bologna (Bologna Festival), Napoli (Teatro S. Carlo e Associazione Scarlatti), Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Gerusalemme, Warsaw, Krakow, Buenos Aires (Teatro Colon), Rio de Janeiro (Teatro S. Paolo), New York (Metropolitan Museum, Lincoln Center), Washington (Library of Congress), Tokyo etc.

Concerto Italiano has been recently involved in the complete Monteverdi opera cycle at La Scala (Milano) and Opera Garnier (Paris) during 2009/2016 with the stage director Bob Wilson. The ensemble made in 2016 its debut in Australia and New Zealand performing Monteverdi Vespers. The group has also been touring with RIAS Kammerchor a monumental program of roman sacred music and A. Scarlatti oratorio “Caino”. In 2017 they will be touring Monteverdi music all over the world, performing 1610 Vespers, Orfeo and Poppea, including China and Japan, Australia, New York (debut concert at Carnegie Hall) and many European cities.

Concerto Italiano records regularely for Naïve. Recent releases include Monteverdi’s “Orfeo”, a collection of sacred music by A. Scarlatti, Monteverdi’s complete 8th Book of Madrigals and Bach’s Brandeburg Concertos. Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers and “Selva Morale e Spirituale”. The impressive array of critical awards received for these recordings confirms the outstanding quality of their performances, now recognised as a unique force in the interpretation of seventeenth and eighteenth century music.