Europa Galante

Europa Galante originated in 1989 as Italy’s inaugural ensemble devoted exclusively to period instruments and Baroque repertoire, quickly establishing itself among the continent’s most polished and elegant orchestras of its kind. Although the group concentrated primarily on Italian Baroque composers, it also explored and documented works by Baroque figures from across the rest of Europe. During the 2021-2022 season the ensemble presented multiple distinct programs throughout Europe and Asia; in 2022 it released the recording Opera in Musica: Carlo Monza Quartets.

The violinist Fabio Biondi, widely regarded as Italy’s foremost period-instrument specialist, established the ensemble at the urging of recording executive Yolanta Skura. A trained pianist who had worked as a recording engineer, Skura resolved in the late 1980s to launch her own label, Opus 111, and to engage promising but still little-known artists whose careers she could personally guide—an approach she contrasted with the practices of major recording companies. Among the most compelling young musicians she encountered was Sicilian-born Biondi, who had developed a fascination with the Baroque violin while enrolled at the Rome Conservatory. He had already appeared as a Baroque violinist at Vienna’s Musikverein at the age of sixteen and, throughout the 1980s, collaborated with leading international period-instrument ensembles. Skura encouraged him to form his own group so that an authentically Italian interpretive stance could be cultivated. The name Europa Galante alludes to the lighter galante idiom that succeeded the high Baroque, characterized by its more straightforward technical language. The new orchestra was greeted enthusiastically in Italy as an emblem of the country’s renewed engagement with Baroque music; Stereo Review compared the impact of its fresh readings to the experience of viewing a meticulously restored Caravaggio or Tiepolo canvas.

Europa Galante quickly became Opus 111’s flagship artist. Its account of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons distinguished itself among the many existing recordings of the work and became the label’s best-selling release, earning recognition as recording of the year in at least five countries. The ensemble soon appeared regularly at major international festivals and in leading recital and concert venues. Drawn to vocal repertoire, Biondi welcomed invitations to direct Baroque operas and oratorios, among them the modern premiere of Handel’s Poro, Caldara’s La Passione de Gesù Cristo, and Alessandro Scarlatti’s La Maddalena and Humanità e Lucifero; these productions were subsequently recorded and issued.

In the late 1990s the orchestra and its director moved to EMI’s Virgin label. Their initial Virgin project was another acclaimed Vivaldi undertaking, L’estro armonico, followed by the release of the Caldara Passion on the Virgin Veritas imprint. Subsequent recordings on that label encompassed Vivaldi’s Les Quatre Saisons (2007), Boccherini (2009), and Ercole (2011). Later the group recorded for the Glossa, Naïve, and Fryderyk Chopin Institute labels; the last of these issued the group’s 2019 recording of Stanisław Moniuszko’s opera Halka. Returning in the 2021-2022 season, Europa Galante toured productions of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, a program devoted to Haydn, and Vivaldi’s Argippo—the last of which had been recorded in 2020. In 2022 the ensemble released the album Opera in Musica, devoted to string quartets by Carlo Monza.