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Europa Galante was formed by Fabio Biondi to draw the international public’s attention to a new and definitive Italian presence in the interpretation of music from the Baroque and Classical eras on original instruments.
Fabio Biondi gathered around him some of the best Italian musicians with whom he had already worked, and soon Europa Galante met with huge success. Their first record, Vivaldi’s concertos was awarded the ‘Premio Cini’ of Venice and the ‘Choc dé la Musique’, and it was soon followed in the subsequent years by a number of further awards such as five Golden Diapasons, Golden Diapason of the Year in France, RTL Prize, ‘Record of the Year’ nominations in Spain, Canada, Sweden, France and Finland, and the ‘Prix du Disque’ (Locatelli’s Concerti Grossi), ‘ffff’ of Telerama review (Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio Humanità e Lucifero).
Europa Galante has performed in many of the world’s major concert halls and theatres: La Scala Theatre in Milan, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Suntory Hall of Tokyo, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Lincoln Center in New York and the Sydney Opera House. The ensemble has toured in Australia, Japan, Canada, Israel, USA and South America, and often collaborates with the Ente Santa Cecilia in Rome to recover and restore eighteenth century Italian operas.
Europa Galante’s repertoire ranges from the operas of Händel (Poro) and Vivaldi (Bazajet) and the oratorios of Alessandro Scarlatti (Maddalena, Humanità e Lucifero, Caino), through to the great instrumental works of the eighteenth century. The ensemble has a varying structure, and often performs chamber music such as the string sonatas of Italian composers of the seventeenth century including Castello, Legrenzi and Farina.
After years of collaboration with the French record company Opus 111, in 1998 Europa Galante signed an exclusive contract with Virgin Classics.
FABIO BIONDI
The Italian violinist and conductor Fabio Biondi is one of the most important and influential figures of the Baroque period-instrument movement.
He studied the violin with both Salvatore Cicerto and Mauro lo Guercio before making his concerto debut with the Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the age of twelve. He gave his first recital on a Baroque violin in Vienna’s Musikverein when he was sixteen and went on to work with such distinguished groups as ‘La Capella Royale’, ‘Musica Antiqua Vienna’ and ‘Il Seminario musicale’, before founding his own ensemble, ‘Europa Galante’, in 1989.
With Biondi as soloist and director, Europa Galante’s performances of Italian Baroque music in particular rapidly established them as one of the foremost ensembles in the world. Biondi’s desire to free period performance of stifling convention and musicological dogma has resulted in some of the most spontaneous and impassioned performances of this inexhaustible repertoire in modern times.
Fabio Biondi’s recordings with Europa Galante have been universally acclaimed. ‘Listening to these performances [of L’estro Armonico for Virgin]’, reported Gramophone magazine, ‘I once again felt some of the thrill and excitement that affected me on hearing this music for the very first time, in the mid-1950s.It’s wonderful stuff, rejuvenating and immensely satisfying.’
In 1998 Fabio Biondi signed an exclusive contract with Virgin Classics as soloist and director of Europa Galante. |
