Concerto Italiano
Concerto Italiano is a Baroque music group consisting of both a vocal and an orchestral ensemble. After gaining recognition in Europe, it has toured throughout the world and taken on major recording projects. In 2022, the group issued a recording of music by Vivaldi and Bach.
Concerto Italiano was founded in 1984 by harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini. The group gave its debut concert in Rome in 1984 in a performance of Francesco Cavalli's opera La Calisto, under the direction of Alessandrini, who has served as the group's music director since its founding. For the first decade of its existence, it was a vocal group only, known for performances of Monteverdi madrigals and the operas and oratorios of Handel, A. Scarlatti, and other Baroque composers. During this decade, the group gradually built up a reputation in Europe as one of Italy's finest Baroque vocal ensembles. It drew broad international notice for a recording of Monteverdi's Fourth Book of Madrigals, which received a 1994 Gramophone Award, the first of five. The following year, Alessandrini formed the orchestral ensemble. In 1997, the vocal ensemble debuted in Japan, drawing lavish reviews. The orchestral ensemble drew an equally enthusiastic response for its American debut in 1999 at Lincoln Center. That tour also included concerts in South America, Japan, and parts of Europe.
After the orchestral arm of Concerto Italiano was founded, the ensemble began taking particular interest in the instrumental and operatic works of Vivaldi. In the 2000s, Concerto Italiano engaged in a massive project with the label Naïve to record all of the operas and concertos of Vivaldi. The ensemble has also devoted time to the works of J.S. Bach, Pergolesi, and lesser-known composers such as Giovanni Legrenzi and Francesco Cavalli. In 2000, the group drew acclaim for its Bach performances at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. On rare occasions, the group has ventured beyond Baroque repertory, most notably in an acclaimed 2001 recording of Rossini arias with soprano María Bayo.
Concerto Italiano recordings have primarily been released by Naïve and its subsidiary Opus 111, although some of the older recordings are available on Brilliant Classics. The most recent of the group's Gramophone Awards came in 2015 for the album Monteverdi: Vespri solenni per la festa di San Marco. In 2017, the ensemble put on a world tour performing Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the composer's birth. In 2019, Concerto Italiano released an album of Bach overtures and issued a recording of Monteverdi's third book of madrigals the following year. The group returned in 2022 with a recording of music by Vivaldi and Bach.
© Robert Cummings /TiVo
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Concerti Italiani
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Concertos - Released by naïve classique on 18 May 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Musica sacra
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jun 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Marenzio: Madrigali, Libro I
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 30 Dec 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frescobaldi: Arie musicali, Primo libro
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Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orlando di Lasso: Villanelle, moresche e altre canzoni
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scarlatti, A: Magnificat Dixit Dominus
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by naïve classique on 3 Apr 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Claudio Monteverdi: Lamento della Ninfa
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Apr 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Claudio Monteverdi : Madrigals, Book 8 - Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Secular Vocal Music - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jan 1997
Cannes Classical Music Award16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Messa Romana - Messa per il Santo Natale
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano, Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by naïve classique on 5 Jan 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve on 15 Jul 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concertos pour cordes
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi, Concerto Italiano, Adrian Chamorro
Classical - Released by Tactus on 17 Mar 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Il primo libro de Madrigali a quattro voci
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Classical - Released by Tactus on 1 Oct 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Claudio Monteverdi : Vespri solenni per la festa de San Marco
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by naïve classique on 26 May 2014
Gramophone AwardGramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Stabat mater
Sara Mingardo, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jun 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Antonio Vivaldi : Armida al campo d'Egitto (Opere teatrale, vol. 13)
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano, Furio Zanasi
Full Operas - Released by naïve classique on 22 Mar 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Claudio Monteverdi : Madrigali (Livres IV, V, VIII, II)
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Secular Vocal Music - Released by naïve on 13 Dec 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O Dolorosa gioia Madrigali
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by naïve on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Concertos & Cantatas
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Sara Mingardo
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 17 Feb 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Marenzio: Madrigali, Libro II
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 28 Aug 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Arie per basso
Lorenzo Regazzo, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve on 21 Feb 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo