Fabio Biondi
Baroque violinist Fabio Biondi has been a pioneer in historically informed musical performance in his native Italy, both as a soloist and as the leader of his own Europa Galante ensemble. His sharp, energetic style has continued to influence the performance of Baroque music even as he has broadened his repertory across a 300-year period.
Biondi was born in Palermo, on the island of Sicily, on March 15, 1961. He showed talent in his violin lessons with Salvatore Cicero, who later bequeathed to him the use of the Carlo Ferdinando Gagliano violin of 1766 that he would play as an adult. By 12, Biondi was performing concertos with the RAI National Symphony Orchestra. One decisive turning point came when he met historically oriented violin players as a teen and immediately became fascinated by the Baroque and Classical forms of the instrument (which differ from the modern ones in their strings, bridges, and bows rather than in the body of the instrument itself). When he was 16, he gave a concert on Baroque violin at Vienna's famed Musikverein, and he formed his own historical-instrument string quartet, the Stendhal Quartet, soon after that; the group did not focus exclusively on Baroque and Classical music but simply performed all its music, which included several commissioned contemporary compositions, on temporally appropriate instruments. Biondi went on to study at the Rome Conservatory, winning the school's first prize in violin. He performed with leading historical-instrument groups, including Jordi Savall's Hespèrion XX (now Hespèrion XXI) and Les Musiciens du Louvre in the late '80s. Biondi's breakthrough came after he formed the Baroque ensemble Europa Galante in 1990. The group's recording debut came almost immediately, with the album Vivaldi: String Concerti on the Opus 111 label.
At the time, Europa Galante was the first historical-instrument Baroque group in Italy, which had lagged behind northwestern Europe, Britain, and Austria in the field. Pent-up demand brought the group immediate success; within a few years, the group had made several best-selling recordings, including one of Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos that sold 500,000 copies, and Europa Galante had snared invitations to prestigious venues, including New York's Lincoln Center, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome (one of several venues where they have backed opera productions), and London's Royal Albert Hall. Biondi has also conducted modern symphony orchestras, including the Radio France Philharmonic and the Gran Canaria Symphony Orchestra.
Biondi's recording career has been marked by extensive activity as both a violinist and conductor. As a soloist, he has recorded for Opus 111, Virgin Classics, and Glossa, releasing a 2019 recording, The 1690 "Tuscan" Stradivari, on the latter label. The previous year, he had conducted Europa Galante in a historical-instrument performance of Verdi's early opera Macbeth. Biondi and Europa Galante released several albums in 2022, including Mendelssohn, which featured a selection of the composer's works for strings. By that year, Biondi's catalog comprised some 100 recordings.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Vivaldi: Concerti per violino XI 'Per Anna Maria'
Klassik - Erschienen bei naïve am 22.09.2023
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Antonio Vivaldi : Les quatre saisons
Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante, Antonio Vivaldi
Kammermusik - Erschienen bei naïve classique am 15.11.1991
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Argippo
Europe Galante, Fabio Biondi, Emöke Baráth, Delphine Galou, Marianna Pizzolato
Oper - Erschienen bei naïve classique am 20.11.2020
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Johan Helmich Roman: Assaggi per violino solo
Klassik - Erschienen bei naïve, a label of Believe Group am 03.05.2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Antonio Vivaldi : "La Stravaganza"
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 04.04.2011
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi : Ercole (Intégrale)
Oper - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 26.11.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi : Concerti per la Pietà
Fabio Biondi, Andrea Rognoni, Alessandro Andriana, Giangiacomo Pinardi, Europe Galante, Paola Poncet
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glossa am 07.02.2020
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Paganini: Sonatas for Violin & Guitar
Fabio Biondi, Giangiacomo Pinardi
Kammermusik - Erschienen bei Glossa am 22.06.2018
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Concerti
Klassik - Erschienen bei naïve classique am 01.01.1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Boccherini: String & Guitar Quintets, Minuet in A Major
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 04.04.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Sonate di Dresda
Fabio Biondi, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Maurizio Naddeo
Klassik - Erschienen bei naïve classique am 01.01.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Sonatas & Partitas
Klassik - Erschienen bei naïve, a label of Believe Group am 15.10.2021
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
The 1690 "Tuscan" Stradivari
Fabio Biondi, Antonio Fantinuoli, Giangiacomo Pinardi, Paola Poncet
Kammermusik - Erschienen bei Glossa am 17.05.2019
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Vicaldi: Musik für Gitarre, Laute & Mandoline
Fabio Biondi, Anthony Bailes, Christopher Parkening
Klassik - Erschienen bei EMI am 15.08.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione, Op. 8
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 01.06.2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Opera in musica, Carlo Monza Quartets
Klassik - Erschienen bei naïve, a label of Believe Group am 22.04.2022
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Il Diario di Chiara: Music from La Pietà in Venice in the 18th century
Europe Galante, Fabio Biondi, Paola Poncet
Klassik - Erschienen bei Glossa am 04.02.2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Boccherini: Guitar Quintets, G. 448 "Fandango" & G. 453 "Ritirada di Madrid" - String Quartet, G. 194
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 03.11.2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: XII Suonate à violino solo, e basso per il cembalo
Fabio Biondi, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Maurizio Naddeo, Paolo Pandolfo
Klassik - Erschienen bei Arcana am 05.06.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leclair: Premier livre de sonates à violon seul avec la basse continue
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Maurizio Naddeo, Pascal Monteilhet, Fabio Biondi
Klassik - Erschienen bei Arcana am 01.01.1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi : I concerti dell'addio
Violinkonzerte - Erschienen bei Glossa am 24.02.2015
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo