Diego Fasolis
If the Swiss canton of Ticino is a land of architects (yesterday Solari da Carona, Borromini and Trezzini who played active roles in the construction of the Kremlin in Moscow, Papal Rome and St Petersburg respectively; today Mario Botta, the most famous of all), it is also a land of architects of sound - musicians, with Edwin Loehrer, the great pioneer of baroque music, Hermann Scherchen who, in the 1950s, founded the electro-acoustic music studio of Gravesano (a distant precursor to IRCAM). Later, the Ticinese violinist Chiara Banchini would found her Ensemble 415 which was so important to the rediscovery of Italian baroque music; and today the Martha Argerich Project in Lugano and the figure of Diego Fasolis which form the focal points of Ticinese music.
An organist (he worked with Gaston Litaize in Paris), choirmaster, and conductor, Diego Fasolis is a vital part of baroque music. In 1995 he founded the Vanitas ensemble in Lugano, and then I Barocchisti (literally, the Baroques) which represents the refoundation of the famous Società cameristica di Lugano set up by Loehrer in 1961 to which we owe the first great recordings of Claudio Monteverdi's Madrigals. The ensemble took a great leap forward in its new incarnation under the baton of Diego Fasolis. The Barocchisti's many recordings have been showered with awards and great international soloists regularly come to collaborate with them, including Philippe Jaroussky, Maurice Steger, Max Emanuel Cencic, and, in recent years, Cecilia Bartoli who has set up a close collaboration. This dazzling activity has not stopped Diego Fasolis from being a guest conductor at Milan's La Scala, in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, at the Lausanne Opéra and at the Château de Versailles where he has been a regular fixture since 2013.
Diego Fasolis's discography, which is published across several labels, is very dense and representative of his wide range of activities at the head of various ensembles such as his Coro Della Svizzera Italiana, I Barocchisti, l’Ensemble Vanitas or the Sonatori De La Gioiosa Marca.
Among his great successes, we may cite the album MISSION with Cecilia Bartoli and Cecilia Bartoli-Saint Petersburg, the recording of the Artaserse by Leonardo Vinci (no relation to the painter of the Mona Lisa!) with Philippe Jaroussky, as well as Farnace by Vivaldi with the same artist. In terms of discoveries, we might list Mozart's Les Mystères d’Isis... or the Magic Flute as it might have been performed in 19th Century Paris, or rather as the masterpiece was shamelessly packaged and sold at the time. Even if the reconstruction is thrilling, we can understand why Berlioz came to the fore.
Diego Fasolis's eclecticism is stupefying, and makes stupendous discoveries possible, such as the Requiem Mass by Camille Saint-Saëns, Faramondo by Handel (with Cencic), The Passion of Jesus Christ by Paisiello and works by Steffani, Piccini, Eisler, and Durante. A masterly way of straddling the generations - or, rather, bestriding them like a colossus.
© François Hudry/QOBUZ/November 2017
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St. Petersburg
Cecilia Bartoli, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Opera Extracts - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 2013
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Gloria; Nisi Dominus; Nulla in mundo pax
Julia Lezhneva, Franco Fagioli, Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Mar 23, 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saens: Messe de Requiem & Partsongs
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by Chandos on Jun 1, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gossec: Le Triomphe de la République
Opera - Released by Chandos on Apr 1, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Senna Festeggiante
Diego Fasolis, Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal, Gwendoline Blondeel, Lucile Richardot, Luigi De Donato, Scott Nicholas
Classical - Released by Château de Versailles Spectacles on Apr 8, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mission
Cecilia Bartoli, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Sep 24, 2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos No. 5-6, BWV 1050-1051 & Triple Concerto BMV 1044
Duilio Galfetti, Stefano Bet, Giovanni De Rosa, Francesco Cera, Diego Fasolis
Concertos - Released by Arts Productions Ltd on Feb 26, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Agostino Steffani : Danze e Ouvertures
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Suites Nos. 1-4, BWV 1066, 1067, 1068, 1069
Classical - Released by Arts Productions Ltd on Nov 7, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giacomo Meyerbeer: Gli Amori di Teolinda (Live at Opera, Lausanne)
Lenneke Ruiten, Davide Bandieri, Diego Fasolis
Opera - Released by Claves Records on Sep 4, 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
J. S. Bach : Weihnachtsoratorium BWV 248
Coro Della Radio Svizzera - Lugano, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Classical - Released by Arts Productions Ltd on Nov 7, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cantatas BWV 198 "Trauerode", BWV 106 "Actus Tragicus", BWV 196 "Der Herr denket an uns", BWV 53 "Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde"
Coro della Radio Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Classical - Released by Arts Productions Ltd on Nov 7, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine, 1610
Coro della Radio Svizzera, Ensemble More Antiquo, I Barocchisti, Concerto Palatino, Diego Fasolis
Classical - Released by Arts Productions Ltd on Jan 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Balsamino: Novellette A 6 Voci / Monteverdi: Combattimento Di Tancredi E Clorinda
Marco Beasley, Giancarlo Rado, Guido Morini, Diego Fasolis, Madrigalisti della Radio Svizzera, Ensemble Vanitas
Classical - Released by Dynamic on Jan 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Gloria; Nisi Dominus; Nulla in mundo pax
Julia Lezhneva, Franco Fagioli, Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Mar 23, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven / Hummel: Mandolin & Fortepiano
Diego Fasolis, Duilio Galfetti
Chamber Music - Released by Arts Productions Ltd on Jan 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Missa Dolorosa / Stabat Mater
Aura Musicale Ensemble, Diego Fasolis, René Clemencic, Swiss Radio Choir
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jul 26, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Arde el Furor
Diego Fasolis, Orquesta Barocca de Sevilla, Maria Espada
Classical - Released by Passacaille on May 1, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Psalm 51 from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater BWV 1083, Cantata "Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust" BWV 170
Coro della Radio Svizzera, I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis
Classical - Released by Arts Productions Ltd on Nov 7, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Oboe Recital: Zoboli, Omar - Bach, J.S. / Handel / Vivaldi / Hertel (Baroque Fantasies)
Chamber Music - Released by Divox on Jan 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concertos pour flûte à bec
Classical - Released by Claves Records on Jan 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo