Il pomo d’oro is an orchestra founded in the year 2012 with a special focus on opera, but equally committed to instrumental performance in various formations. The musicians united in this group are among the best to be found worldwide for authentic interpretation on period instruments. They form an ensemble of outstanding quality, combining stylistic knowledge, highest technical skills, and artistic enthusiasm. The collaboration with violinist and conductor Riccardo Minasi led to an award winning first recording (Vivaldi, ‘Per l’Imperatore’). The second recording, Vivaldi’s violin concerts ‘Per Pisendel’ with Dmitry Sinkovsky as soloist and conductor, received a Diapason d’or. In 2012, il pomo d’oro also recorded 3 solo CDs with three countertenors – Max Emanuel Cencic, Xavier Sabata and Franco Fagioli, under Riccardo Minasi’s direction.
The album ‘Arias for Caffarelli’ was awarded the ‘Choc de l’annee 2013’ by the French magazine ‘Classica’. Il pomo d’oro’s latest contribution to the Naive-Vivaldi-Edition is a recording of the ‘concerti per due violini’, played and directed by the orchestras two outstanding violinists, Riccardo Minasi and Dmitry Sinkovsky, released in October 2013. In conjunction with a book project about the Venetian Gondola by American writer Donna Leon, ‘il pomo d’oro’ recorded a a collection of ancient Venetian Barcarole, sung by Vincenzo Capezzuto.
Numerous concerts (Toulouse, Paris, Munich, London, St. Petersburg, Geneva, St. Moritz, Kopenhagen, Potsdam, Schwetzingen, Versailles, Beaune, Cologne, Hamburg, among others) are scheduled for 2014. ‘il pomo d’oro’s first opera recording – Handel’s ‘Tamerlano’ – with Xavier Sabata, Max Emanuel Cencic, John Mark Ainsley and Karina Gauvin in the leading roles, directed by Riccardo Minasi, will be performed in concerts (Versailles, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne) and released by Naive in March 2014. ‘il pomo d’oro’ also recorded a recital of Agrippina Arias by various composers with the Swedish mezzosoprano Ann Hallenberg, directed as well by Riccardo Minasi, to be released by Naive in February 2014, presenting many first recordings of pieces by Perti, Orlandini, Graun, Galuppi, Sammartini, Legrenzi and others.
The recording season 2014 started in January with two Haydn recordings – the first one with violin, harpsichord and horn concertos with Riccardo Minasi, solo violin and direction, Johannes Hinterholzer, horn, and Maxim Emelyanychev, harpsichord. The second Haydn recording is directed from the harpsichord by Maxim Emelyanychev. The program is a mix of harpsichord concerti, a violin concert with Riccardo Minasi, a symphony (‘la poule’ ) and the Fantasia in C Major, for the first time recorded on a harpsichord.
The next opera recording is scheculed for March 2014: ‘Catone in Utica’ by Leonardo Vinci, with the soloists Franco Fagioli, Max Emanuel Cencic, Valer Sabadus, Juan Sancho a.o., directed by Riccardo Minasi.
The name of the orchestra refers to the title of an opera by Antonio Cesti, composed for the wedding of Emperor Leopold I of Austria with Margarita Teresa of Spain in Vienna in 1666. The opera was the final part of an imperial celebration of incredible multimedial splendour, starting with fireworks of 73.000 rockets and a horse-ballet of 300 horses. With its twenty-four different stage sets and stunning special effects like collapsing towers, flying gods and sinking ships, „Il Pomo d’Oro“ was probably the most excessive and expensive operatic production in the then young history of the genre. It provided roles for fifty singers, and it lasted ten hours –ten hours of magnificent spectacle and beautiful music.
