Delphine Galou, Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone

The Baroque orchestra Accademia Bizantina has the stated intention of "making music like a large quartet." Specializing in choral music and opera, it is among Italy's most prominent historical instrument ensembles. A unique feature of the ensemble has been its cooperative structure; although keyboardist and conductor Ottavio Dantone has been musical and artistic director since 1996, Accademia Bizantina is managed by its collective membership, making for a sound and an organizational structure that mirror each other. The ensemble was founded in 1983 in Ravenna and was encouraged by the historically minded pianist Jörg Demus, conductor Riccardo Muti, and composer Luciano Berio, with whom it worked on a 1992 recording of his works, among others. Among the figures who shaped its vigorous and brisk style were violinist Stefano Montanari and harpsichordist Dantone; the latter joined Accademia Bizantina in 1989 and has brought to the group a perspective that includes both musicological research and interpretive imagination. Beginning with Giuseppe Sarti's Giulio Sabino in 1999, the group has had a special focus on the rediscovery of neglected Baroque operas. It maintains a busy concert schedule across Italy and worldwide. The Berio recording was Accademia Bizantina's debut and, thus far, its only recording to feature contemporary music. It has mostly stayed within the core Baroque period, emphasizing well-trodden pieces like Vivaldi's Il Cimento dell'Armonia concertos as well as lesser-known works. In the 2010s, it has ventured as far forward chronologically as Haydn, issuing a set of historically informed Haydn symphony performances on the Decca label in 2016. The group's career on Decca began in 2004 with a recording of sinfonias and concertos of Alessandro Scarlatti, entitled Il Giardino di Rose, after an oratorio from which instrumental excerpts on the album were taken. It has also recorded for Arts Music, Naïve, Denon, and Alpha, for which it backed soprano Delphine Galou on a 2017 recording of Baroque arias, Agitata. The group has frequently been featured on Naïve's large series of albums devoted to recently rediscovered works by Vivaldi. In 2024, after a substantial pandemic pause, the group returned under conductor Alessandro Tampieri with the Neapolitan sacred music album Invocazioni Mariane.
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