il
Giardino Armonico, was founded in Milan in 1985 and brings
musicians from some of Europe’s leading music institutions,
all of them specialised in performing on period instruments. The
ensemble’s repertory is principally concentrated on the
17th and 18th centuries. Depending on the demands of each programme,
the group will consist of anywhere from 3 to 35 musicians.
il Giardino Armonico is regularly invited to
festivals all over the world and has performed in the most important
concert halls. Among them can be counted the
Concertgebouw
in Amsterdam,
Wigmore Hall and
Barbican 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,
Disney
Hall in Los Angeles and the
Teatro Colón
in Buenos Aires.
For many years
il Giardino Armonico had an exclusive
contract with TELDEC Classics and produced many recordings. The
groups 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 a 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 a Grammy Award. In autumn 2000 their
CD
Viaggio Musicale of Italian music of the 17th century
was released and in 2001 the CD
Musica Barocca. Both
were awarded the French prize “10 de Répertoire”.
In December 2002 Teldec dedicated a CD in their series of
Artist
Portraits to the ensemble. In 2005 two CDs were released:
La Casa del Diavolo (works by Boccherini, Locatelli,
Gluck, C.P.E. and W.F. Bach) with the French label Naïve,
and a CD of Vivaldi
Violin Concerts with Viktoria Mullova
for the English label Onyx which won a Diapason d’Or. The
last CD “Concerti per Violoncello” by Vivaldi with
Christophe Coin was released by Naïve in spring 2007.
il Giardino Armonico has received the highest
acclaim for both concerts and their staged opera productions,
among them, Monteverdi’s
L’Orfeo, Handel’s
Agrippina,
Il Trionfo del Tempo del Disinganno,
La Resurrezione and
Aci,
Galatea e Polifemo
and Pergolesi’s
La serva padrona. The ensemble
can regularly be heard performing with such acclaimed soloists
as Cecilia Bartoli, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Sara Mingardo,
Bernarda Fink, Lynne Dawson, Christoph Prégardien, Magdalena
Kožená, Viktoria Mullova, Christophe Coin and Giuliano
Carmignola.
Since April 2007 il Giardino Armonico is the Resident
Baroque Ensemble at Centro Cultural Miguel Delibes in Valladolid