Venice Baroque Orchestra

BIOGRAFIA
“. . . the orchestra . . . is lithe, colourful, virtuosic, hits the ground running, and can turn on a dime with complete unanimity. These are all qualities which have made their previous CDs so satisfying: the sweetness of the strings in the slow movements; the imaginative continuo playing, especially from the lute; the alert phrasing and use of dynamics; and the rhythmic tightness.”

BBC Music Magazine, London, September 2006 (CD review Concerti & Sinfonie)

The Venice Baroque Orchestra’s founder and director, Andrea Marcon, was born in Treviso and received a diploma in early music from Basle’s Schola Cantorum for his organ and harpsichord studies with Jean-Claude Zehnder. Among his other influential teachers are Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jesper Christensen, Harald Vogel and Ton Koopman. From 1983 to 1997, he was harpsichordist and organist of the Treviso-based early music ensemble Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca. He also founded and directed the International Organ Festival “Città di Treviso”, playing a prominent role in the restoration of the city’s historic organs.

1986
Andrea Marcon wins first prize in the organ competition in Innsbruck

1991
As a harpsichordist Marcon wins first prize in the Bologna competition

1997
Marcon founds the Venice Baroque Orchestra with some of Italy’s finest instrumentalists; together they have performed throughout Europe and Japan

1998
Marcon’s dedication to the rediscovery of Baroque masterpieces leads to the first fully staged performances in modern times of Francesco Cavalli’s opera L’Orione

2000
Marcon and the VBO give the first fully staged performances in modern times of Handel’s Siroe

2001
The VBO makes its New York debut at Lincoln Center in August; Marcon conducts the orchestra in the first contemporary revival of Cimarosa’s L’Olim­piade at Venice’s Teatro Malibran

2002
VBO/Marcon make a rapturously received debut at the BBC Proms in August at London’s Albert Hall

2002/03
The VBO under Andrea Marcon make a critically acclaimed 20-concert debut tour of the USA, followed by appearances in Vienna, Paris, London and Cologne with mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager.

2003/04
The orchestra and Marcon tour Germany, appear at festivals in Lucerne, Ambronay, Passau and Eisenach, and also perform in Zurich, Geneva, Lyon, Basle, São Paulo and Istanbul. They present concert performances of Handel’s Siroe in Paris, Hamburg and Metz, and make tours of the US that include Los Angeles’s new Walt Disney Hall, semi-staged performances of Siroe in Berkeley and fully-staged performances of Handel’s opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, produced by the acclaimed French-Argentine director Jorge Lavelli. Andrea Marcon also conducts Handel’s Ariodante at the Frank­furt Opera (stage production by Achim Freyer) and gives organ recitals in Milan, Dresden and Seoul. In January 2004 the VBO and Andrea Marcon make their first recording for Archiv Produktion under their new exclusive contract: Andromeda liberata; the world-premiere recording of this remarkable Venetian serenata is released as a 2-CD set in autumn 2004

2004
The orchestra appears at the inaugural Venice Music Festival with a series of performances of Andromeda liberata. Further performances of Andromeda in New York (Carnegie Hall), Boston, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam and London. The VBO and Marcon also appear in concert in Europe, Brazil and
on a tour of the USA

2005
Katia and Marielle Labèque join Marcon and the orchestra on a North Amer­ican tour featuring Bach keyboard concertos and Vivaldi sinfonias; concerts with the VBO, including Andromeda liberata on tour in Japan, as well as works by Bach (B minor Mass and harpsichord concertos), Boccherini and Vivaldi in Italy, Germany, France, Austria and Spain; Andrea Marcon returns to the Frankfurt Opera for further performances of Ariodante. CD release this year: “Concerto veneziano” with violinist Giuliano Carmignola

2006
Andrea Marcon appears in recital in Switzerland and Italy. The VBO and Andrea Marcon give concerts throughout Italy and Germany and are joined by violinist Viktoria Mullova in a programme of sinfonias and concertos in Spain, Austria and Croatia in November; performances of Andromeda liberata in Italy and Germany, Vivaldi’s Atenaide in Siena and Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade in Venice; Vivaldi motets with soprano Simone Kermes in Italy and Belgium. CD releases: a collection of previously unrecorded violin concertos by Vivaldi with soloist Giuliano Carmignola and an album of miniature Vivaldi sinfonias and string concertos

2007
The year begins with Andrea Marcon conducting Cavalli’s opera Giasone in Frankfurt. Giuliano Carmignola then joins the conductor and VBO on tour in the USA (including Carnegie Hall); concerts of works by Scarlatti and Pergo­lesi in Spain, and Monteverdi’s Vespers and Handel’s Apollo e Dafne (with Simone Kermes and Vito Priante) in Germany. A recording of motets by Vivaldi, with Simone Kermes, is scheduled for release early in the year


11/2006