Orfeo Orchestra
Based in Budapest, the Orfeo Orchestra is a period instrument ensemble founded by György Vashegyi to perform with the Purcell Choir. It still does so, but it has gone on to perform orchestral music and opera independently of that group.
György Vashegyi was a Hungarian conductor, multi-instrumentalist, and continuo player when he formed the Purcell Choir in 1990 for a performance of Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas. Similarly, he established the period instrument Orfeo Orchestra the following year to accompany a performance of Monteverdi's opera Orfeo, the first one in Hungary. Vashegyi intended the orchestra to follow an English early music model, with emphasis on hearing the sounds of individual instruments, and he recruited Baroque violinist Simon Standage as concertmaster to this end. Vashegyi remains the orchestra's conductor, and the group continues to perform with the Purcell Choir. In 1998, the Orfeo Orchestra made its recording debut on the Hungaroton label, backing the Purcell Choir on the album Istvánffy: St. Benedict Mass; Kraus: Requiem.
As the orchestra developed, it also began to perform and record independently of the Purcell Choir. Its first all-instrumental recording came in 2002 with Tartini: Four Concertos for Violin and Orchestra, with violinist László Paulik. Between 2002 and 2007, the Orfeo Orchestra performed Haydn's first 80 symphonies composed at Esterházy Palace, Haydn's employer for many years, using the exact forces used by Haydn at the works' premiere performances. The group has been heard frequently at festivals both within and outside Hungary, including the Hungarian Haydn Society's Haydn Festival at Esterházy Palace and the Toujours Mozart Festival in Salzburg and Vienna. The Orfeo Orchestra has attracted increasingly prestigious guest conductors such as Helmuth Rilling, René Jacobs, Philippe Herreweghe, and Masaaki Suzuki. The orchestra moved to the Glossa label in 2016, backing the Purcell Choir on a recording of Grands Motets by Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville. The Orfeo Orchestra has toured well beyond Hungary, appearing at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 2019. It has continued to record for Glossa, where it was heard on a recording of Rameau's opera Les Fête d'Hébé in 2022. It has also been heard on the early music specialist label Palazzetto Bru Zane.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Discography
19 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Jouissons de nos beaux ans !
Cyrille Dubois, Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir, György Vashegyi
Classical - Released by Aparté on Sep. 15, 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Leclair: Scylla et Glaucus, Op. 11
Orfeo Orchestra, György Vashegyi, Judith van Wanroij, Cyrille Dubois, Véronique Gens, Purcell Choir
Opera - Released by Glossa on Oct. 20, 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brillez, astres nouveaux! (Airs d'opéra baroque français)
Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir, György Vashegyi
Classical - Released by Aparté on Jan. 31, 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Méhul: Adrien
Purcell Choir, Orfeo Orchestra, György Vashegyi
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on Jul. 31, 2015
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rameau: Les fêtes d'Hébé, RCT 41
Opera - Released by Glossa on May 20, 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mondonville : Isbé
Classical - Released by Glossa on Jan. 20, 2017
Qobuzissime24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Luigi Cherubini: Les Abencérages
Orfeo Orchestra, György Vashegyi, Anaïs Constans
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on Nov. 11, 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Un opéra pour trois rois
Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir, Chantal Santon-Jeffery, György Vashegyi, Emöke Baráth, Thomas Dolié
Classical - Released by Glossa on Oct. 6, 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Boismortier: Les voyages de l'Amour, Op. 60
Classical - Released by Glossa on Oct. 2, 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rameau: Dardanus, RCT 35 (Revised 1744 Version)
Opera - Released by Glossa on Feb. 5, 2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 24, 30, 42 & 43
Orfeo Orchestra, György Vashegyi
Classical - Released by Accent on Apr. 2, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gervais : Hypermnestre
Opera - Released by Glossa on Oct. 4, 2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 6-8
Orfeo Orchestra, György Vashegyi
Classical - Released by Accent on Jun. 19, 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rameau: Naïs, RCT 49
Opera - Released by Glossa on Apr. 6, 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Charpentier: Messe Des Morts / Psalmus Davidis / Salve Regina
Purcell Choir, Orfeo Orchestra, György Vashegyi
Classical - Released by Hungaroton on Jul. 15, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lemoyne: Phèdre
Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir, György Vashegyi
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on Apr. 10, 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Werner: Der Gute Hirt
Classical - Released by Accent on Oct. 2, 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Complete Operas
Orfeo Orchestra, Sergio Vartolo
Classical - Released by Brilliant Classics on Oct. 1, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo