"My feeling is that
'sound'—I am not speaking only about interpretation—is a mirror
of the personality," says Fabio Biondi, virtuoso violinist and
musical director of the Italian-Baroque ensemble Europa Galante. "I
believe that an arid or bad person will play in an arid or bad way,
there is no doubt."
"What we are looking
for is love for music, dedication."
It's a hot summer day in
Parma, the capital of Italy’s famed "food valley" and
home to the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Arrigo Boito, a 13th century
Gothic bell tower, an exquisite pink-marble baptistry, and antiquarian
frescoes. "This is my hometown," says the 42-year-old
Biondi, a Palermo native who moved here at age 13. Clad in a simple
polo shirt and trousers, Biondi is seated in the workshop of luthier
Desiderio Quercetani, the violin maker who has made most of the instruments
for the members of Europa Galante. Biondi speaks patiently but passionately
about the success that has catapulted his ensemble to the top of the
classical charts in both the United States and Europe with a series
of acclaimed CDs—recordings that reflect his efforts to free the
music of Vivaldi, Scarlatti, and other period composers of the dogmatic
and restricted interpretations of the past.
"I think that Baroque
music is a 'language' that is much appreciated by the audience,"
he explains. "When it was performed [300 years ago] it conveyed
feelings and emotions that we can still perceive today, and it can be
easily manipulated—in the good sense of the word. That is, the
interpretative criteria are not strictly fixed; it feels like it's always
new, fresh, similar to jazz improvisation. There is a touch of fantasy."
That fascination with Baroque
music has guided Biondi throughout a long career that began when he
was a boy. He started studying violin with both Salvatore Cicerto and
Mauro Lo Guercio before making his concerto debut at the age of 12 with
the Italian Radio Symphony At 16, Biondi first performed
on a Baroque violin at the Musikverein in Vienna. He later appeared
with La Capella Real of Madrid, Musica Antiqua Vienna, and other prestigious
ensembles. In 1990, he founded Europa Galante and has gone on to build
a considerable following in Europe and abroad.
When asked how this passion
for Baroque music started, Biondi explains that "there was a general
favorable 'musical ambiance' in my family. My father was a music lover—he
did not play, he was a medical doctor, but he was really a passionate
fan. My grandfather was a lawyer and played the piano and his dream
was to become a conductor. My brother is a pianist.
"So, I was attracted
to music as a child, and my love for Baroque music started in the '70s
when I started listening to records of [German cellist, violist, and
conductor Nikolaus] Harnoncourt and others. Today, Baroque music makes
up about 80 percent of the repertoire I play."
Lost Treasures
As a musicologist, Biondi
has found and recorded several previously unknown works and his research
has played a key role in the ensemble’s success. For instance,
in 1999, Europa Galante drew rave reviews for its two-CD release of
Vivaldi's Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (Virgin Veritas,
5454652), which features the hoariest of all Baroque works, The Four
Seasons. In typical Biondi fashion, he worked not from the familiar
1725 published edition, but from rare Vivaldi manuscripts preserved
in libraries in Turin, Dresden, and Manchester–versions that revealed
surprising differences and gave new insights into the composer’s
own working methods.
"We often hear comments
like, 'Oh, you Latin people from the Mediterranean, everything you do
is so light, so entertaining, so narcissistic, so extroverted!'"
Biondi says of the public's perception of Baroque music. "But people
have to realize that this is the result of a lot of work."
Last year, the ensemble
focused on the often neglected music of Scarlatti, releasing a CD of
chamber concertos and sinfonias from father and son Alessandro and Domenico
Scarlatti. At the center of this disc are Alessandro's highly personal
set of six concerti grossi, predating Handel's Op. 6 set, while Domenico
is represented by three short sinfonias, possibly written as introductions
to cantatas.
"More recently, we
'discovered' a score by Alessandro Scarlatti that was considered lost:
an 'oratorio' dated 1715 that I found in the music library in Brescia
and that we staged for a world premiere in Spain last March. I think
that this aspect of my activity—besides the work of violinist and
conductor—of going around the music libraries and looking for manuscripts
of that period, is very important. And today it is also easier, as the
documents have all been microfilmed, so we can take the music home.
Before you could only consult in situ.
"There is still a lot
of research to be made in that field, and it is part of my future plans."
But Biondi has no plans
to limit his searches to lost works by well-known masters. He also intends
to "rediscover" many of the forgotten musical personalities
of the 17th and part of the 18th centuries, including great violinists
who also were composers. "For example, [Pietro Antonio] Locatelli
and [Francesco] Germiniani were neglected for a long time," he
says, "but we often return to their sources of inspiration and
understand how they contributed to the history of music. I intend to
valorize the Italian repertoire, both instrumental and vocal.
"It is very important."
He's well on his way to
achieving that goal. For its concert activities and in particular for
its performance last April of the Scarlatti opera Il Trionfo dell'onore
at the 2001 Scarlatti Festival in Palermo, the Italian National Critics'
Association awarded Biondi and Europa Galante the Premio Abbiati. This
prestigious award was given in the past to maestros Claudio Abbado,
Hugo de Hana, and Franco Zeffirelli.
Chamber Music Focus
But while Europa Galante
has made a commitment to showcasing Italian opera, it is the ensemble's
dedication to chamber music that has brought it international recognition.
For the group’s most recent release, the splendid recording of
Vivaldi's Concerti per mandolini (Virgin Veritas, 7243 5455272),
Biondi brought in mandolins, recorders, an oboe, a bassoon, chalumeaux,
and two harpsichords. "We devote a lot of time to chamber music;
it is an important aspect of our production and gives great satisfaction
to members of the ensemble," Biondi says. "When production
requires it, we also call in wind instruments and such. So the ensemble
is composed of a fixed nucleus of musicians and when needed we call
in guest musicians."
Since its inception, Europa
Galante has been invited to play at hundreds of festivals and concert
halls, from the Scala of Milan to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
in Rome, the Suntory Hall of Tokyo, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam,
the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Musikverein of Vienna, the Lincoln
Center of New York, and the Sydney Opera House.
All told, Europa Galante
and its conductor have sold nearly one million records, with Vivaldi's
The Four Seasons selling more than 500,000 copies worldwide.
The ensemble's recordings also have garnered international prizes, including
five Golden Diapasons, Golden Diapason of the Year in France, Record
of the Year nominations in Spain, Canada, Sweden, France, and Finland,
and the Prix du Disque for Locatelli's Concerti Grossi, among others.
But Biondi is most excited
not by commercial success or that Europa Galante has shown that a new
generation of young musicians is embracing Baroque chamber music, but
by the ensemble's ability to rise above the mere pursuit of virtuosity.
"I am convinced that the generation that will take our place will
not be trained like athletes, but rather with love and dedication,"
Biondi says. "The success obtained by Europa Galante takes place
mostly on the human level, with all it represents of the difficulties
of human relationship. If the 12 years we have spent together have brought
a harmonious feeling, it is perhaps because we have tried to apply a
style, not based on profit but based on our personal evolution. Life
is like school, we are here on earth to learn something, so let's try
and learn well. I think this can be a religious moral that we are here
to learn.
"It is nice to be well
known, to have success, and for all this I am grateful. But fame and
success should not be the driving motive, it is a recognition that is
welcome afterwards. To make music is a mental gesture, a correct attitude–a
way of life!"
Photo
of Fabio Biondi by Simon Fowler.
