Coro della Svizzera Italiana

One of the major choirs founded in conjunction with European broadcasters in the years before World War II, the Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera Italiana (or Choir of Radio and Television of Italian Switzerland) has specialized in Italian Baroque repertory. Based in Lugano in the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland, the choir was founded as the Coro dela Radio Svizzera (Swiss Radio Choir) in 1936. Its founder and director for 40 years, was Edwin Löhrer, who early on gave the group its orientation toward early music, and deployed its 60 singers in flexible ensembles that ranged from madrigal singers to groups capable of performing large-scale Baroque works. Löhrer was succeeded by Francis Travis and then by André Ducret. In 1993, conductor Diego Fasolis, one of the pioneers in contemporary Italian Baroque historical-performance interpretation, assumed the directorship and developed the choir's repertory in conjunction with his instrumental ensemble, I Barocchisti. In 1998 the choir mounted a major tour performing Bach's motets. They have also occasionally performed contemporary music, and their guest conductors have included numerous stars of the European early music scene: René Clemencic, Michel Corboz, Ton Koopman, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Helmuth Rilling, and Gustav Leonhardt, among others. The Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera Italiana has accumulated a large catalog of recordings that have earned such awards as a Diapason d'Or, an R10, a Fonoforum star, and a Grammy nomination. Although they have focused on the Italian Baroque, one of their notable recordings, made in 1997 for the Naxos label, covered the sacred music of Franz Liszt. In addition to Naxos, the choir has recorded for the Arts, Dynamic, Azzura Music, Chandos, Musikszene Schweiz, Brilliant Classics, and Decca labels; on Decca they released, with Fasolis and I Barocchisti, a new recording of Vivaldi's Gloria in D major, RV 589, in 2018.
© James Manheim /TiVo