Fabio Biondi,Europa Galante – Vivaldi: La Stravaganza (2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Fabio Biondi,Europa Galante – Vivaldi: La Stravaganza (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 56:24 minutes | 656 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Of the new school of Italian authentic-instrument violinists who have moved the spotlight south from the Netherlands in High Baroque repertory, none has had more success than Fabio Biondi. There are more purely daring interpretations of Vivaldi, and more subtle ones. But Biondi and his handpicked Europa Galante ensemble send audiences away satisfied, even where historical performance remains a rarity. His performances are a great deal of fun, with big, booming outer movements taken at a breakneck clip that does nothing to impede his total mastery of the solos. In this excerpted set of concertos, published in London in 1728 as Vivaldi’s Op. 4, Bondi’s style is displayed with maximum effectiveness. The concertos have less obviously attractive tunes than the more famous L’estro armonico set or the Four Seasons concertos, replacing those with big blocks of sound that respond well to Biondi’s high-energy treatment. Sample especially the opening movement of the Violin Concerto in B flat major, RV 383a (track 1), where Europa Galante keeps up with Biondi in passagework that seems to distort the underlying pulse and take on its own rhythmic momentum. Plenty of thrills! An additional bonus is the presence of an unusual Concerto for violin, cello, strings, and continuo, RV 544, which features an invertible pair of solo parts (showing that Vivaldi could even do contrapuntal trickery when he set his mind to it). Virgin Classics’ sound in its Biondi discs has a live church acoustic that puts one in mind of an indoor swimming pool, and it may not be to everybody’s taste. In general, though, this is an excellent place to start for those curious about Biondi or even about the entire revolution that has overtaken the performance of High Baroque instrumental music.

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Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante – Vivaldi : Concerti per violino VI “La boemia” (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante – Vivaldi : Concerti per violino VI “La boemia” (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:08:45 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

Vivaldi wrote hundreds of violin concertos, yet even this tiny sample of six, written during the composer’s visit to Prague between 1730 and 1731, demonstrates in every movement his genius of harmonic and dramatic surprise. Each concerto is startlingly original, from the opening movement of the E Minor RV 278 that pits daring solo passages against a hypnotic, pulsing orchestra, while the same concerto’s Largo even feels modern in its angularity. A more familiar Vivaldi can be heard in the C Major RV 186, with its Italianate innocence and winsome middle Largo. But whatever the composer’s mood, Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante thrill to his ingenuity at every step.

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Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi & Emoke Barath – Vivaldi: Argippo (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi & Emoke Barath – Vivaldi: Argippo (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 02:02:38 minutes | 2,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve classique

With this second contribution to the Vivaldi Edition, Fabio Biondi and his ensemble Europa Galante sign here the recording of the twentieth opera of the collection – a pasticcio in which Vivaldi ‘recycles’ hit tunes from the ‘World of Warcraft’ operas of his contemporaries.

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Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi – Concerti per la Pietà (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi – Concerti per la Pietà (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:11:05 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa

Violinist Fabio Biondi has a singular capacity for finding something new and exciting in the music of Antonio Vivaldi whenever he considers it, a prodigious feat which he demonstrates with “Concerti per La Pietà”, a new collection of works calling for a variety of demanding solo challenges, superbly met by Biondi and his colleagues from Europa Galante.

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Europa Galante & Fabio Biondi – Handel: Silla (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Europa Galante & Fabio Biondi – Handel: Silla (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:52:55 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Glossa

No opera from Handel is as enigmatic as Silla. This fourth London opera was composed in 1713; and that’s as far as our knowledge goes! The written music scores are incomplete and we have no information about any contemporary performance. The first Handel experts tried to find an explanation and agreed upon the theory that Silla was written for a private show in the household of the Count of Burlington, who was at the time the composer’s patron. Then, in 1969, the discovery of a glossary from June 1713 established a possible date of the first performance. The inclusion of an extravagant work dedicated to the Duke d’Aumont, a recently appointed French ambassador, suggests the possibility of a show organized by or for the Duke. That could explain not only the absence of an English translation in the glossary, which is unique about Handel’s London operas, but also the relative brevity of the work.

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Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante – Mendelssohn (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante – Mendelssohn (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:02:26 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © naïve

Europa Galante has recorded Mendelssohn under Biondi’s direction! The program includes works written by Mendelssohn between the ages of 11 and 18.

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