Rinaldo Alessandrini 

 

Rinaldo Alessandrini is harpsichordist, organist and fortepianist as well as founder and director of Concerto Italiano. For the past forty years on the ancient music scene, he has favored the Italian production in his repertoire choices, trying to give back to performance all those characteristics of cantabile and mobile expressiveness that were proper to the Italian style of the XVII and XVIII centuries.

In addition to overseeing the activity of Concerto Italiano, he leads an intense solo activity, host of festivals around the world, in the USA, Canada, Japan as well as in Europe.

 

During his activity as guest conductor, he conducted orchestra such as those of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Symphonic Orchestra Ciudad de Granada, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Regionale della Toscana, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Northern Symphonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlighment, Boston Handel & Haydn Society, Freiburger Barockorchester, Orchestra of La Monnaie Opera House, Symphony Orchestra of Stavanger, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Philarmonia Baroque Orchestra,  Parma Orchestra Toscanini, Orchestra of the Danish Radio, Royal Liverpool Philarmonic Bolzano Orchestra, Haydn Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Washington Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Santiago de Chile Opera House, Orchestra of the Capitole of Toulouse, S. Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice, Orchestra of Sao Paulo Opera House, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Tonkunste Orchestra Wien, Handelsolisten Karlsruhe.

 

He has also directed « Semele » by Handel (Spoleto Festival, Canadian Opera Company – Toronto); « Catone in Utica » of Vinci (Teatro di Lugo di Ravenna); « The Coronation of Poppea » (Welsh National Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Teatro Valli of Reggio Emilia, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Opera du Rhin; Opera National de Bordeaux, Opera Garnier; Theater in La Scala): « L’isola disabitata » by Jommelli (Roman Philharmonic Academy and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Teatro San Carlo in Naples); « L’Olimpiade » by Vivaldi (Teatro Rendano di Cosenza); « La Serva Padrona » of Pergolesi (Freiburg Konzerthaus); « Alcina » by Handel (Liceu of Barcelona); « Artaserse » of Hasse (Teatro di Lugo di Romagna); « The Marriage of Figaro » by Mozart (Welsh National Opera, Norway Opera); « Giulio Cesare » by Handel (Teatro Real of Madrid, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Norway Opera, Opera of Toulon); « Amadigi » by Handel (Teatro S. Carlo di Napoli, Edinburgh Festival); « Zaide » by Mozart (Mozart Festival in La Coruña, Munich Radio Orchestra); « Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno » (Queen Elisabeth Hall in London); Paisiello’s « Barbiere di Siviglia » at the Teatro de La Monnaie (Brussels), « Il ritorno di Ulisse » at the Welsh National Opera and the Theater at La Scala, « La clemenza di Tito » and « Orfeo » by Monteverdi at the Norway Opera and the Teatro a La Scala, « Die Entführung aus dem Serail » (Welsh National Opera, Opera du Rhin), « L’inimico delle donne » by Galuppi (Opera de Liege), « Orfeo ed Euridice » by Gluck (Norway Opera) , « Cenerentola » by Rossini (Cartagena Festival), « Messe Solemnelle » by Rossini (Norway Opera), « Don Giovanni » (Bergen Opera, Opera de Liege); « La finta semplice » by Mozart (Münchner Rundfunkorchester), « Orlando » by Handel (Welsh National Opera, Semperoper Dresden); « The Fairy Queen » by Purcell (Berlin Philharmonic, Schwetzingen Festival, Bozar Brussels). In July 2005 he signed a musical direction and directing of a new production of the « Incoronazione di Poppea » at the Teatro Liceo in Salamanca.

 

He was guest director at the Oslo Opera and resident director at the RIAS Kammerchor in Berlin.

 

In 2003 he was appointed “Chevalier dans l’ordre des Artes et des Lettres” by the French Minister of Culture. He is Academic of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana. Together with Concerto Italiano he also received the 2003 Abbiati Award for his activity.

 

Concerto italiano

 

Leave it to the Italians to teach us about beauty. Concerto Italiano’s performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers for the Blessed Virgin was all about effortlessly flowing beautiful singing. (The West Australian)

 

Concerto Italiano was born in 1984. Its history overlaps with that of the rebirth of ancient music in Italy. Monteverdi, Bach and Vivaldi were the main pivots over which the group was able to renew the language of ancient music, revealing completely new aesthetics and rhetorical aspects. Other contributions were concerning less known repertories like those one of Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Melani, Antonio Bononcini and other composers, included in several “theme” recording programs.

After all these years the recordings of Concerto Italiano are still considered reference versions by critics and the public, testifying to the definitive meaning that the group has been able to give to its commitment and its achievements.

Concerto Italiano has performed in the halls all over the world, not only in Europe but also in the USA, in South America, Australia, Japan and China.

 

Concerto Italiano realized the Monteverdi trilogy at the Scala in Milan and at the Opera Garnier, directed by Bob Wilson, between 2009 and 2016, also celebrating the Monteverdian year with a triumphant world tour (Europe, China, Japan, Australia) in which the group performed Vespers of 1610, Orfeo and debuting at Carnegie Hall with the Coronation of Poppea.

 

The impressive discography has been reported and rewarded with distinctions and awards from record critics: five Gramophone Awards – 1994, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2015 and the only Italian group with three nominations in nominations in 1998 and the best album in the category « instrumental baroque » « In 2004 – two Grand Prix du Disque, three German Record Critics Awards (including the last in 2008 for the recording of Monteverdi’s Orfeo), the Cini Prize, five Midem prizes at Cannes as well as the Disque de l’Annèe 1998 and 2005, Disc of the year for Amadeus 1998). The British music critic has decreed the recordings of the Four Seasons by A. Vivaldi and the Brandenburg Concertos by J. S. Bach still the best on the market today. Concerto Italiano records exclusively for Naive Believe.

Concerto Italiano also received the Abbiati 2002 Award for the activity.

 

 

Sonia Tedla Chebreab

 

Si è brillantemente diplomata in Canto presso il Conservatorio G. B. Martini e si è laureata con il massimo dei voti al DAMS indirizzo didattica della musica. Ha proseguito gli studi di canto perfezionandosi nella vocalità barocca con cantanti di fama internazionale. Nel 2013 vince il secondo premio ex aequo (primo non assegnato) al X Concorso Internazionale di Canto Barocco F. Provenzale di Napoli. Ha collaborato e collabora con importanti direttori, tra i quali si ricordano: Rinaldo Alessandrini, Alfredo Bernardini, Filippo Maria Bressan, Gianluca Capuano, Claudio Cavina, Attilio Cremonesi, Ottavio Dantone, Alessandro De Marchi, Philippe Herreweghe, Herve Niquet, Giulio Prandi, Federico Maria Sardelli, Alessandro Quarta. Ha preso parte alle attività di prestigiose realtà musicali in Italia e all’estero quali Lincoln Center‘s White Light Festival di New York, Boston Early Music Festival, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Concertgebouw di Amsterdam, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées di Parigi, Misteria Paschalia di Cracovia, Styriarte Festival di Graz, Festival George Enescu di Bucarest, Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival, La Folle Journée, Festival de Saintes, MITO Settembre Musica, Centro musica antica Pietà dei Turchini di Napoli, Concerto Romano, Ghislieri Choir and Consort, La Cappella musicale di San Petronio, Bologna Festival. Si è esibita in diversi teatri tra cui il Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Opera de Lyon, Teatro dell’Opera di Kiel, Teatro Verdi di Pisa, Teatro del Giglio di Lucca, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, Teatro Goldoni di Livorno, Teatro Bonci di Cesena e il Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Ha registrato per le case discografiche Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Dynamic, Pentatone, Glossa.