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Europa Galante was formed by Fabio Biondi to draw the international public’s attention to a new and definitive Italian presence in the interpretation of music from the Baroque and Classical eras on original instruments. Fabio Biondi gathered around him some of the best Italian musicians with whom he had already worked, and soon Europa Galante met with huge success. Their first record, Antonio Vivaldi’s concertos was awarded the ‘Premio Cini’ of Venice and the ‘Choc dé la Musique’, and it was soon followed in the subsequent years by a number of further awards such as five Golden Diapasons, Golden Diapason of the Year in France, RTL Prize, ‘Record of the Year’ nominations in Spain, Canada, Sweden, France and Finland, and the ‘Prix du Disque’ (Pietro Antonio Locatelli’s Concerti Grossi), ‘ffff’ of Telerama review (Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio Humanità e Lucifero).
Europa Galante has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and theatres: La Scala Theatre in Milan, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Suntory Hall of Tokyo, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Lincoln Center in New York and the Sydney Opera House. The ensemble has toured in Australia, Japan, Canada, Israel, USA and South America, and often collaborates with the Ente Santa Cecilia in Rome to recover and restore 18th century Italian operas, such as Antonio Caldara’s La Passione di Gesù Cristo and Leonardo Leo’s Sant’Elena al Calvario. The ensemble regularly performs at the Alessandro Scarlatti Festival in Palermo and has given the world premières of Clori, Dorino e Amore serenata, Massimo Puppieno, Il Trionfo dell’Onore and in 2002 La Principessa Fedele.
Europa Galante’s repertoire ranges from the operas of George Frideric Handel (Poro) and Antonio Vivaldi (Bazajet) and the oratorios of Alessandro Scarlatti (Maddalena, Humanità e Lucifero, Caino), through to the great instrumental works of the 18th century. The ensemble has a varying structure, and often performs chamber music such as the string sonatas of Italian composers of the 17th century including Castello, Giovanni Legrenzi and Farina. Their recent recording of Luigi Boccherini’s string quintets has received great critical acclaim.
After years of collaboration with the French record company Opus 111, in 1998 Europa Galante signed an exclusive contract with Virgin Classics which went on to release their recordings of A. Vivaldi’s L’Estro Armonico, Luigi Boccherini’s string quintets as well as arias from cantatas by J.S. Bach with the tenor Ian Bostridge.
Europa Galante’s future commitments include the recording of A. Vivaldi’s motets with the Italian soprano Patrizia Ciofi, and J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg concertos. This spring, Europa Galante will inaugurate a week of religious music in Cuenca, Spain, with a performance of G.F. Handel’s oratorio La Resurrezione, and in June, after an intensive European tour, they will perform two concerts at the Istanbul International Festival before finally returning to South America for a long tour of Brazil. |
