Profile: La Serenissima is a British ensemble, which is specialized in Italian baroque music. Founded in 1994. The English ensemble La Serenissima - (that was one nickname in the past for the city of Venice) - is making heroic efforts to elevate the world's appreciation of Vivaldi's genius as a composer of both instrumental and vocal music.
La Serenissima, under their director Adrian Chandler, intersperse these cantatas with three of Vivaldi’s instrumental sonatas. His Graz sonatas are so-called because the manuscript is housed in the Diozesanarchiv Graz.
La Serenissima is a British early music/period instrument ensemble founded in 1994 by violinist Adrian Chandler, who has served as the group's director since its creation. Taking its name from La Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia (Italian for The Most Serene Republic of Venice), the ensemble specializes in the music of Venetian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) and his contemporaries.
Established in 1994, La Serenissima is recognised as the UK's leading exponent of the music of eighteenth century Venice and connected composers. Uniquely, the group's entire repertoire is edited from manuscript or contemporary sources, and it has been praised for its 'glorious and all-too-rare ability to make one’s pulse race afresh with every new project' (Gramophone).
Since its first release on the AVIE label[1] in 2003, La Serenissima's recordings have been lauded by numerous publications and have attracted multiple award nominations; Vivaldi: The French Connection won the 2010 Gramophone Award for Baroque Instrumental. Their interpretation of The Four Seasons was released in 2015, reaching Number 8 in the UK Specialist Classical Chart and featured as Editor's Choice (Gramophone Magazine) and Concerto Choice (BBC Music Magazine). Their 2017 release The Italian Job has been praised on BBC Radio 3's Record Review and on Classic FM as ‘Drive Discovery’, reached the Top Ten in the UK Specialist Classical Albums Chart, and won the 2017 Gramophone Award for Baroque Instrumental in the ceremony's 40th Anniversary year. The ensemble's 2018 release Vivaldi x2 is a disc of double concertos for pairs of horns and oboes, and violin and cello. It entered the UK Classical Music Charts at No. 1 in the week of its release, and featured as Classic FM's Album of the Week.
La Serenissima has performed internationally to acclaim; recent highlights include concerts at Bridgewater Hall, Sage Gateshead and Wigmore Hall, festivals in Petworth, Sablé, Swansea and Valletta, and performances of Brescianello's opera Tisbe at the 2018 Buxton International Festival. During 2017 the ensemble curated its first residency The Grand Tour at St John's Smith Square, performing little-known works by Brescianello, Caldara and Dall’Abaco amongst others of the Italian baroque; the group gave three performances with choir and soloists at the 2017 Vivaldi in Venice Festival for Martin Randall Travel.
La Serenissima is proud to have the backing of its Honorary Patron, His Excellency The Italian Ambassador.
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- ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2018-08-04. Retrieved 2018-08-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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La Serenissima has firmly established itself as one of the leading exponents of the music of Antonio Vivaldi and his Italian contemporaries.
Founded in 1994 by violinist Adrian Chandler, La Serenissima is now recognised as the UK’s leading exponent of the music of eighteenth century Venice and connected composers. Uniquely, we present world-class musical performances in concert and recording where all the research and editorial work is our own. Described by Gramophone as having 'a glorious and all-too-rare ability to make one’s pulse race afresh with every new project' we have been praised for our 'fresh approach' (BBC Music Magazine), 'dazzling inventiveness' (The Strad) and singled out for our 'difference in attack' from other orchestras (The Independent).
We delight in bringing great baroque music to the widest possible audience through our trademark mix of ‘blockbuster’ musical works and unknown gems; through live performances, talks and workshops; and through our recordings which are available to all. We’ve championed a plethora of neglected works by composers ranging from Dall’Abaco to Composer X and have also brought to life Vivaldi’s operas Catone in Utica, Giustino, La Fida Ninfa, L’Olimpiade, Ottone in villa and Tito Manlio.
La Serenissima has appeared at many of the UK’s leading festivals including the Bath Bach, Bath International, Beverley, Buxton, Cambridge Summer, Chelsea, Cheltenham, Lichfield, Ryedale, South Bank, Warwick and York Early Music, and at venues including Bridgewater Hall, St George’s Bristol, Snape Maltings, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall. We have given concerts for Music in the Round and leading cultural tours operator Martin Randall Travel; we have also received support from Arts Council England for UK touring projects Vivaldi: The Red Priest and The Four Seasons. We have performed abroad in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Mexico and Spain to great acclaim.
Since we started making records (in 2003), La Serenissima has been universally applauded by publications including American Record Guide, BBC Music Magazine, Diapason, Falstaff Magazine, Fanfare Magazine, Gaudisc, Goldberg Magazine, Gramophone, La Stampa, The Evening Standard, The Guardian, The Independent, The Irish Times, The Strad and The Sunday Times for our performances on the Avie Label. We won the Gramophone Award in the ‘Baroque Instrumental’ category in 2010 for Vivaldi: The French Connection, an album that was later included in an elite Forbes List (2013). Our recordings have regularly made the Top 10 of the UK Specialist Classical Chart, received frequent award nominations, been featured as ‘Disc of the Month’ and ‘Concerto Choice’ (BBC Music Magazine), ‘Editor’s Choice’ (Gramophone), ‘Drive Discovery’ (Classic FM) and on BBC Radio 3 programmes ‘Record Review’ and ‘Building a Library’. Part of the follow-up album to our first ever record Per Monsieur Pisendel has been used on the soundtrack to hit American TV series The Originals.
We celebrated our 21st birthday by recording a new edition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Manchester version) alongside works for violin 'in tromba marina', a reconstruction collaboration between violinist Adrian Chandler, luthier David Rattray and the musicologist Michael Talbot which was a ‘first’ in modern times. The record entered the UK Specialist Classical Chart at number 8, received numerous accolades in the press (including Irish Times ‘Classical Album of the Year’) and was ranked among the Top 3 choices in Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’ on The Four Seasons (which covered a discography beginning in the 1940s). Our latest release The Italian Job brings alive instrumental music for 4 trumpets, timpani, wind and strings; the disc was showcased on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Record Review’ and Classic FM’s ‘Drive Discovery’, it was ‘Editor’s Choice’ in Gramophone (May 2017) and went on to secure the group’s second Gramophone Award in September 2017.
Reviews
Vivaldi La Serenissima Wikipedia
Albums