Andrea Marcon, conductor
Giuliano Carmignola, violin

Principal Underwriter: Maurice Amado Foundation

Children’s Concert Special Contributor: The Watterson Foundation and The Anne Stevens & Cameron Waterman III Fund in The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation

Program

Albinoni	Concerto in G major for strings and continuo, Op.7 No.4
Vivaldi	Concerto in G minor for strings and continuo, RV 152F.
Geminiani	Concerto grosso in D minor, “La Follia”
Vivaldi	Concerto in mi minore per violino, archi e bc, RV 273
Vivaldi	Concerto in D major for violin, strings and continuo, RV 222
Tartini	Concerto in D minor for violin, strings and continuo, D 45
Vivaldi	Concerto in C major for violin, strings and continuo, RV 191

“The hottest groups no longer come from England and the Netherlands, but from Italy. One of the newest is the Venice Baroque Orchestra … a youthful group that plays zestily and with a tightly drilled ensemble.” – New York Times

Artist Biographies

Founded in 1997, the Venice Baroque Orchestra is recognized as one of Europe’s premier ensembles devoted to period instrument performance. Led by Baroque scholar and harpsichordist Andrea Marcon, the Orchestra has received wide critical acclaim for its concert and opera performances throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Japan.

The Orchestra’s 2006-2007 season opened at the Venice Music Festival in October with the modern-day premiere of Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade at Teatro Malibran. With violinists Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola, they gave a series of duo concerto concerts in Spain and Austria. Their US tour in February included performances at Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and in Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, and Kansas City. Other 2007 highlights were a staged performance of Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Cremona, and festival appearances in Halle, Schwetzingen, Dortmund, Nürnberg and Ludwigsburg. At the Salzburg Festival they performed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Christine Schäfer and Andreas Scholl, and then closed their season in Cortona at the Tuscan Sun Festival with Cecilia Bartoli.

During the 2007-2008 season they toured South America with Giuliano Carmignola, and Spain with mezzo-soprano Romina Basso. In November, they performed a total of fifteen concerts across Europe, highlighted by performances of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Anna Netrebko and Andreas Scholl in Vienna, and of Handel arias with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Ko?ená in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, and Brussels.

Committed to the rediscovery of first-rate Baroque opera, Marcon has led the Orchestra in modern-day premieres of Francesco Cavalli’s L’Orione, Vivaldi’s Atenaide and Benedetto Marcello’s La Morte D’Adone and Il trionfo della poesia e della musica. With Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Orchestra staged Handel’s Siroe in 2000, followed by an equally successful staging of Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade in 2001. In April 2004, the Orchestra revived Siroe in its first full staging in the United States at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

At the 2004 Venice Music Festival, they gave the modern-day premiere of Andromeda liberata, a Venetian serenata recently discovered to have been written in part by Vivaldi. The VBO subsequently performed Andromeda in Boston, New York, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam, London, Osaka and Tokyo. A North American tour with Katia and Marielle Labèque in Mozart concertos on fortepiano ensued.

The Orchestra records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. Their world-premiere recording of Andromeda liberata was followed by two recording of violin concertos with Giuliano Carmignola, an album of Vivaldi sinfonias and concertos for strings, Vivaldi motets with soprano Simone Kermes, and Handel arias with Magdalena Kozena. The Orchestra’s earlier discography on Sony Classical includes The Four Seasons, two albums of previously unrecorded Vivaldi concertos, Locatelli violin concertos, and a collection of Bach arias featuring Angelika Kirchschlager. For its recordings, the Orchestra has been honored with the Diaspason D’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Echo Award and the Edison Award.

Their concerts have been filmed by the BBC and NHK, and broadcast by RadioFrance, France Musiques, ORF, RaiDue, BBC3, National Public Radio, RadioTre and Arte. The Venice Baroque Orchestra is supported by Fondazione Cassamarca in Treviso.

Andrea Marcon

Conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and scholar, Andrea Marcon is a leading specialist and performer of early music. Born in Treviso, Mr. Marcon received a diploma in Early Music from Basel’s Schola Cantorum Basiliensis for his organ and harpsichord studies with Jean-Claude Zehnder. He then won first prize in the organ competition at Innsbruck in 1986 and, in 1991, first prize for harpsichord at Bologna.

Today, Mr. Marcon is widely recognized as a leading interpreter of the Baroque and Classical periods. In 1997, he founded the Venice Baroque Orchestra (VBO) and has since led the group to international acclaim. His dedication to the rediscovery of Baroque opera led to the first modern-day stagings of Francesco Cavalli’s L’Orione (1998), Handel’s Siroe (2000), Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade (2001) and Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade (2006). In April 2004, Mr. Marcon conducted the United States premiere of Siroe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has also been heralded for his performances of Marcello’s Il trionfo della Musica e della Poesia and Bach’s Mass in B minor.

The 2006-2007 season concluded with his debut at the Salzburg Festival with the VBO in performances of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater featuring Christine Schäfer and Andreas Scholl. The season commenced with the modern day premiere of Vivaldi’s Atenaide in Siena and the performance of Andromeda liberata in Baden-Baden. Other highlights included: conducting the Frankfurt Opera in Cavalli’s Giasone; bringing together for the very first time violinists Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola for performances of Baroque double concertos in Spain and Austria; conducting the KammerAkademie Potsdam in Beethoven symphonies and concertos; leading performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers in Schwetzingen and Orfeo in Cremona, as well as Handel’s Apollo e Dafne in Halle and Dortmund; and touring across the United States with Giuliano Carmignola and the VBO. In August 2007, he conducted Cecilia Bartoli and the VBO in Handel arias at the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona.

Highlights of the 2007-2008 season included a tour to Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Brussels, London, Amsterdam and Rotterdam with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Ko?ená and the VBO in conjuction with Deutsche Grammophon’s release of their album of Handel arias. He also led the Oriol Ensemble in the Berlin Philharmonie, conducted Messiah in Granada, and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Musikverein with Anna Netrebko and Andreas Scholl. In addition to this month’s new production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo with La Cetra in Basel, he will conduct Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Future seasons’ opera plans include Rossini’s La scala di seta, Handel’s Alcina and Ariodante, and Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso.

For his recordings as organist, Mr. Marcon has been awarded four times with the Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik prize. Mr. Marcon’s recordings as conductor have also received several accolades, including the Diapason D’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Vivaldi Award of the Cini Foundation, Germany’s Echo Award and the Edison Prize. For Sony Classical, he recorded seven albums from 1999 through 2003—as conductor of the VBO with Giuliano Carmignola and mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager, and as harpsichordist with Mr. Carmignola and Anner Bylsma. Mr. Marcon and the VBO now record exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. Releases to date are Andromeda liberata, two albums of Baroque concertos with Mr. Carmignola, Vivaldi motets with soprano Simone Kermes, string concertos and sinfonias of Vivaldi, and Handel arias with Magdalena Ko?ená.

Mr. Marcon is professor of harpsichord, organ and interpretation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He was founding harpsichordist and organist for the Treviso-based early music ensemble, Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca (1983-1997). He also founded and served as artistic director of the International Organ Festival “Città di Treviso,” where he helped facilitate the restoration of the city’s historic organs. Mr. Marcon studied with Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jesper Christensen, Harald Vogel and Ton Koopman.

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