Tag: Fabio Biondi

Paganini Lunchtime Concert At The Wigmore Hall, Fabio Biondi & Giangiacomo Pinardi, 29 January 2024

This was a lovely way to spend a Monday lunchtime. The Wigmore Hall stub for this concert sets out the programme.

Much of the material we heard can be found on the album “Niccolò Paganini – Sonatas for Violin & Guitar” which looks like the headline picture.

We sat directly behind Andrew McGregor, who presented the concert for BBC Radio 3 listeners. It is the first time we have ever sat in those seats, which was enlightening and slightly distracting in equal measure. We did at least, from there, hear what the presenter is telling the Radio 3 audience, which is often a bit more than can be found on the programme.

Actually, for this concert, most of what we wanted was in the programme, which can be found through the Wigmore Hall link or, if that ever fails, here.

If you are finding this within a month or so of the concert, then you can hear it on BBC Sounds – click here.

In the concert hall we got a sweet encore by Pietro Locatelli, which made me realise that I had paid that composer far too little attention, so we listened to a fair smattering of Locatelli when we got home. We also discussed his football skills and his magnificence as a restaurateur.

One of the finest composers Juventus ever produced? And as for Zafferano…

Vivaldi, Sammartini, Nardini, Brioschi, Fabio Biondi & The English Concert, Wigmore Hall, 25 May 2008

 

An unusual mixture of the vaguely familiar and less familiar Italian Baroque and its aftermath. The list of composers reads like an Italian restaurant menu or perhaps the lyrics of Mambo Italiano.

Fabio Biondi is a bit of a showman, I seem to recall, which is not necessarily the style that floats Janie’s boat, but it seems almost compulsory to perform Vivaldi that way these days. Although these particular Vivaldi concertos are not the best known ones, there’s always something fairly familiar about the Vivaldi concerto sound. No bad thing.

The second half of the concert was more subdued and in many ways more interesting, as I’m not sure I’d ever heard any Sammartini, Nardini or Brioschi before. Well worth a listen, but nothing so wow that I’m desperate for a recording or rushing back for more in the concert hall.

There’s no Wigmore Hall stub for this concert – those start from January 2012, but there is an Instant Encore entry, click here, so far I am the only person to confess to having attended this concert. Not even the Orchestra…

Joking apart, it was a very good concert, just one of those low key Sunday night at the Wigmore Hall affairs.

 

Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi, Wigmore Hall, 18 November 2000

A lovely concert of fairly standard baroque fare, beautifully performed by Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante.

We heard:

  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in G Minor for Strings RV 157
  • Wilhelm Friedemann Bach – Sinfonia in F major F67 Die Disonanzen
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Violin Concerto in G minor (after BWV 1056)
  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Violin Concerto in B flat major op 8 No 10 La Caccia
  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in D minor Op 3 No 11 for two violins, cello & strings
  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in G minor for 2 violins and cello Op 3 No 2

There’s not much video of Europa Galante from that early period of their existence – but this one of them performing the delicious Vivaldi RV558 gives a good idea of what they looked and sounded like back then.

The inclusion of some WF Bach was a bit unusual. Biondi hasn’t recorded it and I’m not allowed to embed the linked vid, but you can click through to a video of some other Italian geezers performing it – here.

The Vivaldi RV157 also seems to be a bit rare – Biondi has not recorded it. It’ a very sweet piece. Here is the Iris Ensemble performing it.

If you are in search of the sound of Europa Galante with Fabio Biondi playing lots of Vivaldi of the Op 3 and Op 8 variety, then this playlist of mine on YouTube Music will be for you.

Alternatively, if the orchestral works of WF Bach float your boat, then this playlist is for you. I am pretty sure I bought the first album on that playlist on the back of hearing that sinfonia at The Wig that night.