Founded in 1985 and conducted by Giovanni Antonini, Il Giardino Armonico has established itself as one of the world’s leading period instrument ensembles, bringing together musicians from Europe’s relevant music institutions. The ensemble’s repertoire mainly focuses on the 17th and 18th century. Depending on the demands of each program, the group consists of six up to thirty musicians.
Il Giardino Armonico is regularly invited to festivals all over the world performing in the most important concert halls and receiving high acclaim for both concerts and opera productions. The ensemble worked also with such acclaimed soloists as Giuliano Carmignola, Sol Gabetta, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Viktoria Mullova and Giovanni Sollima.
In 2018 Il Giardino Armonico continued the collaboration with the gifted violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja with a new program of fertile tension between past and future, bringing together philological accuracy and contemporary music: the volume »What’s next Vivaldi?« has been published in October 2020 on Alpha Classics.
Besides, Il Giardino Armonico sustains an intense recording activity.
After many years as an exclusive ensemble of Teldec achieving several major awards for the recordings of works by Vivaldi and the other 18th century composers, the orchestra had an exclusive agreement with Decca/L’Oiseau-Lyre recording Handel’s Concerti Grossi op. VI and the cantata Il Pianto di Maria with Bernarda Fink. Il Giardino Armonico also released on Naïve »La Casa del Diavolo«, Vivaldi’s Cello Concertos with Christophe Coin, as well as the opera »Ottone in Villa«, that won the Diapason d’Or in 2011.
After the universal success and the Grammy Award received for The Vivaldi Album with Cecilia Bartoli (Decca, 2000), a new cooperation with her in 2009 led to the project »Sacrificium« (Decca), a Platinum Album in France and Belgium and a further Grammy Award. The most recent project with Cecilia Bartoli brought about the release of the album »Farinelli« (Decca, 2019).
In co-production with National Forum of Music in Wroclaw (Poland), Il Giardino Armonico published »Serpent & Fire« with Anna Prohaska (Alpha Classics – Outhere Music Group, 2016) winning the ICMA »Baroque Vocal« in 2017.
The recording of five Mozart Violin Concertos with Isabelle Faust (Harmonia Mundi, 2016) stands as the result of the prestigious cooperation with the great violinist, winning the Gramophone Award and Le Choc de l’année in 2017.
Il Giardino Armonico is part of the project Haydn2032, for which the Haydn Stiftung Basel was created to support both the recording project of the complete Haydn Symphonies (label: Alpha Classics) and a series of concerts in various European cities with thematic programs focused on this repertoire. The project’s albums received many prizes like the Echo Klassik Award (2015), the “Choc of the Year” by Classica and the Gramophone Award. Now the series is enriched by another monument by the Austrian composer: »Die Schöpfung« (»The Creation«) has been published in October 2020 with the Bavarian Radio Chorus.