Founded in 1985 and conducted by Giovanni Antonini, Il Giardino Armonico has been established as one of the world’s leading period instrument ensembles. Its repertoire focuses on the 17th and 18th century. It has received high acclaim for both concerts and opera productions, like Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Vivaldi’s Ottone in Villa, Händel’s Agrippina, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, La Resurrezione and Giulio Cesare in Egitto with Cecilia Bartoli during the Salzburg Whitsun and Summer Festival 2012. For many years it has been an exclusive ensemble of Teldec Classics, achieving major awards for the recording of works by Vivaldi and other 18th century composers. It cooperated with Cecilia Bartoli for several successful volumes like Vivaldi Album (Decca, 2000 – Grammy Award), Sacrificium (Decca, 2009 – Platinum Album and Grammy), Farinelli (Decca, 2019). 

With Decca/L’Oiseau-Lyre the ensemble released acclaimed albums as Händel Concerti Grossi op. VI, Il Pianto di Maria with Bernarda Fink; later two albums with Julia Lezhneva on Decca (Alleluia in 2013 and Händel in Italy in 2015). 

The recording of five Mozart Violin Concertos with Isabelle Faust (Harmonia Mundi, 2016) stands as the result of the prestigious cooperation with the great violinist, winning the Gramophone Award and Le Choc de l’année in 2017, and a new project focused on the virtuoso composer P. A. Locatelli will be published in 2023. The second half of 2023 will bring also a volume on Baroque concertos with the famous mandolin player Avi Avital (Deutsche Grammophone).  

In co-production with NFM Wroclaw the ensemble published Serpent & Fire with Anna Prohaska (Alpha Classics, 2016) winning the ICMA “Baroque Vocal” in 2017 and La morte della Ragione in 2019 winning the Diapason d’Or and le Choc Classica. The Telemann album won the Diapason d’Or de l’année and the Echo Klassik in 2017. A new Vivaldi Album Concerti per flauto has been published in March 2020, receiving the Diapason d’Or. In October 2020, again with Alpha Classics the ensemble published What’s next Vivaldi? with Patricia Kopatchinskaja, focused both on the famous composer and selected Italian contemporary ones, awarded with the Opus Klassik in 2021. Il Giardino Armonico is part of the project Haydn2032 for the recording of the complete Haydn Symphonies (Alpha Classics) and a series of thematic concerts. In 2015 La Passione won the Echo Klassik while Il Filosofo has been “Choc of the year” by Classica. Solo e Pensoso was released in 2016 and Il Distratto won the Gramophone Award in 2017. La Roxolana has been published in Jan 2020, L’Addio in Jan 2021 winning the “Choc of the Year” by Classica and the Diapason d’Or, Les Heures du Jour in July 2021, winning the Diapason d’Or, and Hornsignal in 2023. From January 2022 a CD box of the first 10 volumes is available. The series has been enriched by Die Schöpfung published in October 2020 with the Bavarian Radio Chorus.

Musicians:

STEFANO BARNESCHI, FABRIZIO HAIM CIPRIANI, ANNA MADDALENA GHIELMI, JUDITH HUBER, AYAKO MATSUNAGA, LIANA MOSCA, LUCAS BERNARDO DA SILVA 1st violin
ANGELO CALVO, ELENA ABBATI, FRANCESCO COLLETTI, ESTHER CRAZZOLARA, NATASHA PICHLER, GUILLERMO SANTONJA DI FONZO 2nd violin
ERNEST BRAUCHER, ARCHIMEDE DE MARTINI, ELZBIETA STONOGA, MARIA CRISTINA VASI alto
MARCELLO SCANDELLI, GIULIO PADOIN, ELENA RUSSO, MATYLDA ADAMUS cello
GIANCARLO DE FRENZA, ALEXANDRA DIENZ, STEFAN PREYER double bass
MARCO BROLLI, EVA OERTLE flute
EMILIANO RODOLFI, THOMAS MERANER oboe
TINDARO CAPUANO, STEFANO FURINI clarinet
MICHELE FATTORI, YOAN OTANO bassoon
MAURIZIO BARIGIONE contrabassoon
GAVIN EDWARDS, EDWARD DESKUR natural horn
JONATHAN PIA, MATTEO MACCHIA trumpet
EMILY WHITE, PETER THORNTON, ADAM CRIGHTON trombone
RICCARDO BALBINUTTI timpani
RICCARDO DONI organ