2022

IX. concert

IL POMO D'ORO
Federico Guglielmo, violin and direction
Raffaele La Ragione, mandolin – soloist
Elisa Citterio, violin
Francesco Lovato, viola
Francesco Galligioni, cello
Alessandro Pivelli, bass
Roberto Loreggian, harpsichord

www.ilpomodoro.org

The ensemble Il pomo d'oro was founded in 2012. It is characterized by an authentic, dynamic interpretation of operas and instrumental works from the Baroque and Classical period. The musicians are all well-known specialists and are among the best in the field of historical performance practice. The ensemble so far worked with the conductors Riccardo Minasi, Maxim Emelyanychev, Stefano Montanari, George Petrou, Enrico Onofri and Francesco Corti. Concert master Zefira Valova leads the orchestra in various projects. Since 2016 Maxim Emelyanychev has been its chief conductor, and since 2019 Francesco Corti is principal guest conductor.

Il pomo d'oro is a regular guest in prestigious concert halls and festivals all over Europe. After the worldwide success of the program «In War and Peace» with Joyce DiDonato, in 2020 il pomo d’oro and Maxim Emelyanychev will present the new program My favorite things with the American Mezzosoprano.

The discography of Il pomo d'oro includes several opera recordings: G. F. Händel's Agrippina, Serse, Tamerlano, Partenope and Ottone,  Leonardo Vinci' s Catone in Utica, and Alessandro Stradella’s La Doriclea. It features Recitals with the countertenors Jakub Józef Orliński,  Franco Fagioli, Max Emanuel Cencic, and Xavier Sabata, with mezzosopranos Ann Hallenberg and Joyce DiDonato and with sopranos Francesca Aspromonte and Emöke Barath. Among the instrumental albums the recordings of Haydn's violin and harpsichord concertos as well as a cello album with Edgar Moreau received ‘Echo Klassik’ Awards in 2016. Further instrumental recordings are dedicated to the violin concertos and the harpsichord concertos by J.S. Bach, with Shunske Sato and Francesco Corti as soloists, and to virtuoso violin concertos with Dmitry Sinkonvsky.

New releases in 2021 were Bach harpsichord concertos vol.2 with Francesco Corti, recitals with Lisette Oropesa (Mozart concert arias) and Jakub Józef Orliński (Anima Aeterna). In 2022 a number of releases are being scheduled, among them the new recital with Joyce DiDonato, Eden.

In 2019, the albums Anima Sacra with Jakub Józef Orliński, and Voglio Cantar with soprano Emöke Barath received the prestigious Opus-Klassik award, and the recording of G.F. Händel’s Serse, conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev, was awarded the important Italian ‘Abbiato del Disco’. In 2018, the recording of Alessandro Stradella’s opera La Doriclea, conducted by Andrea di Carlo, recieved the important German ‘Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik’. Virtuosissimo with Dmitry Sinkovsky, released in 2019, received a ‘Diapason d’Or’. 

The soloist Raffaele La Ragione took up the mandolin at a very early age. Since then, he has devoted himself to researching historical plectrum instruments and their original repertoire, to which he has dedicated numerous recordings. In 2020, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, he released the disc Beethoven and his Contemporaries (Arcana-Outhere Music), which was favorably received by the critics: “The young Raffaele La Ragione is now on the mandolin what Gustav Leonhardt was once on the harpsichord” (Le Monde), “Une gourmandise piquante et vitaminée, qui vous met de bonne humeur!” (Diapason); “Vividly performed and recorded disc” (BBC Music Magazine). In 2022 he released his solo debut album Mandolin on Stage with Il Pomo d’Oro conducted by Francesco Corti, dedicated to the greatest mandolin concertos, recorded with three historical mandolins. His interests have always extended to popular music, and since 2018 he has been part of the Orchestra Italiana of Renzo Arbore, the most famous Italian singer-songwriter and showman in the world, with whom he has made numerous tours and television broadcasts. He is professor of mandolin at the Conservatory of Bergamo in Italy.

Il pomo d’oro is official ambassador of El Sistema Greece, a humanitarian project to provide free musical education to children in Greek refugee camps. Il pomo d’oro plays charity concerts and offers workshops and music lessons according to the El Sistema method on a frequent regular basis in various refugee camps in Greece.

The name of the ensemble il pomo d'oro refers to Antonio Cesti's opera from the year 1666. Composed to the wedding celebrations of Emperor Leopold I and Margarita Teresa of Spain, Il Pomo d'Oro was probably one of the largest, most expensive and most spectacular opera productions in the still young history of the genre. 24 different stage designs, a horse-ballet of 300 horses, a fireworks display of 73,000 rockets, numerous ‚special effects'- superlatives, which should make the Emperor's court the highlight of cultural splendor in Europe. 

Concert program: Antonio Vivaldi, Baldassarre Galuppi, Giovanni Paisiello, Domenico Scarlatti, Francesco Lecce