interview
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Coro e Orchestra GhislieriGiulio Prandi, a musical ecosystem in Pavia
Music director of the Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri and a tireless seeker of Baroque treasures, Giulio Prandi is the architect of a unique ecosystem in Pavia (Italy). He opens 2026 with the revival of Pelopida, an opera by the Franco-Maltese composer Girolamo Abos (1715–1760), at the Valletta Baroque Festival in Malta. Several ambitious projects will follow, from Neapolitan opera to sacred polyphonies, not to mention collaborations with the cultural institutions of his home city.
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Blue Heron & Scott MetcalfeJohannes Ockeghem Goes to Boston
In an America where early music remains a scattered archipelago, the ensemble Blue Heron stands out like a beacon. Its founder, violinist and conductor Scott Metcalfe, has patiently woven a thread linking New England to old Europe. “We are isolated, yes—but free,” he says. For Total Baroque Magazine, he tells the story of how it all began… on a bus in Boston, in 1999!
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Gli Incogniti & Amandine BeyerDancing with “The Four Seasons”
The recording of The Four Seasons by Amandine Beyer and her ensemble Gli Incogniti (released in 2008) is among the benchmark interpretations of Vivaldi’s work. For the violinist, this recording was anything but a closed chapter in a “sound museum”: it was a sensory shock, a door opening onto the unknown and, more recently, a choreographed playground.
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Fabio Biondi & The Four SeasonsThe Story of the Momentous 1991 Album
Fabio Biondi does not play Vivaldi: he makes Vivaldi speak through the violin. Between traditional Italian virtuosity and the finely crafted grammar of Baroque research, he has spent nearly fifty years defending the idea that music is a language rather than a mere question of tonality. We look back on a seminal encounter and his album of The Four Seasons, which went on to achieve international success.
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Concerto Italiano & Rinaldo AlessandriniDead Madrigalists Society of Naples
A part of unprecedented research, harpsichordist and conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini unveils a Neapolitan circle of composers gravitating around the musician-prince Gesualdo at the turn of the seventeenth century. A discovery that redraws the map of the Italian madrigal, revealed in his album “Stravagante pensiero”.
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Gli Angeli GenèveStephan MacLeod: 20 Years of Bach, One Box Set
Gli Angeli Genève is celebrating its twentieth anniversary. For the occasion, conductor and artistic director Stephan MacLeod highlights a singular journey within the European Baroque landscape. Between Geneva roots, a quest for excellence, and wide-ranging exploration of the repertoire, the ensemble marks this milestone with a major event: the release of a box set gathering the complete Bach chorale cantatas, the result of nearly fifteen years of work.
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Ensemble La RêveuseA Musical Journey through Eighteenth-Century London in 4 CDs
With their ensemble La Rêveuse, Florence Bolton and Benjamin Perrot have devoted ten years to exploring English music of the eighteenth century. Their project, “London,” brought to life in the form of four recordings, stands out for its singular ambition: to link the musical history of that period with contemporary movements of populations and artists.
