Rinaldo Alessandrini
Conductor and harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini is an innovative interpreter of Italian Baroque opera and instrumental music. As the director of his own ensemble, Concerto Italiano, he has brought dramatic, opera-influenced readings to a variety of Baroque works from Italy and beyond.
Alessandrini was born in Rome on January 25, 1960. He was relatively late in beginning his musical studies, taking up the piano at age 14. Four years later, he discovered the harpsichord and traveled to the Netherlands for lessons with Ton Koopman at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. He was soon giving concerts on the harpsichord. Alessandrini founded Concerto Italiano in 1984. He also played the organ, and his first recording, a performance of Girolamo Frescobaldi's Fiori Musicali collection, was on that instrument. That recording was on the Naïve label, which would be Alessandrini's home for much of his recording career. In 1992, he issued a collection of Alessandro Scarlatti's keyboard music on the Arcana label; he has also recorded for Opus 111, which released his early recordings of Monteverdi madrigals with Concerto Italiano.
As an opera conductor, Alessandrini has led performances of Monteverdi operas as well as those of lesser-known composers, such as Francesco Cavalli and Leonardo Vinci. His involvement with a major series of recently rediscovered Vivaldi works issued on Naïve brought him to international attention and resulted in Europe-wide tours and festival appearances for Concerto Italiano. Other acclaimed Alessandrini recordings included those of Handel's Italian-language operas and harpsichord concertos by J.S. Bach, stressing their direct Italian antecedents. The group's recordings of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos have been both critical and commercial successes. Alessandrini returned to Monteverdi's operas in the 2010s, conducting L'incoronazione di Poppea at the La Scala opera house in Milan. He has recorded prolifically, issuing as many as four albums a year in the 2010s; the 2018 set included Un viaggio a Roma. He has also continued to release solo keyboard albums occasionally, including Bach: Klavierwerke in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed Alessandrini only slightly; releases devoted to Monteverdi continued to appear, and in 2022, he and Concerto Italiano released a new recording of Vivaldi's popular 12 Concertos, Op. 3, titled L'estro armonico. By that time, Alessandrini's recording catalog included well over 125 items.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Monteverdi : Il sesto libro de madrigali, MDCXIV
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Secular Vocal Music - Released by Arcana on 27 Jan 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Il terzo libro de madrigali
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Opera - Released by naïve classique on 30 Oct 2020
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Antonio Vivaldi : L'Olimpiade (Opere teatrale, vol. 1)
Full Operas - Released by naïve classique on 1 Oct 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Variations on Variations (Arr. for Baroque Ensemble)
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 29 Sep 2017
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Pergolese, Scarlatti: Stabat Mater
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Gemma Bertagnolli, Concerto Italiano, Sara Mingardo
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by naïve classique on 3 Apr 2007
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Madrigali Guerrieri e Amorosi
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Music by vocal ensembles - Released by naïve classique on 3 Oct 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Melani : Motets
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by naïve classique on 24 Aug 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Antonio Vivaldi : Arie per Basso (Opere teatrale, vol. 7)
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Lorenzo Regazzo
Opera Extracts - Released by naïve classique on 21 Feb 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Haendel: Arias, Madrigals & Cantatas
Sara Mingardo, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 24 Mar 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Ottavo libro dei madrigali
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jan 2000
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
Classical - Released by Arcana on 5 Jun 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda & Il Ballo delle Ingrate
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concerti Italiani
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Concertos - Released by naïve classique on 18 May 2004
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 -
Monteverdi: Musica sacra
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jun 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Buxtehude: Harpsichord Works - 2 Suites & Variations "La Capricciosa"
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 9 Feb 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Antonio Maria Bononcini : Messa a cinque - Stabat Mater a quatro
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by naïve classique on 27 Aug 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frescobaldi: Arie musicali, Primo libro
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano
Classical - Released by naïve classique on 1 Jan 1994
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
Classical - Released by Arcana on 1 Jan 1992
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