THE ACCADEMIA DI SANTA CECILIA ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS WIN TWO MORE AWARDS AT THE 2010 GRAMOPHONE AWARDS, WINNING SIX AWARDS IN A YEAR
The Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Chorus have won two more awards at the Gramophone Awards this afternoon – a Gramophone Award in the Choral Category for their recording of Verdi’s Requiem with its Anglo-Italian music director Antonio Pappanoon EMI Classics and another Gramophone Award in the Recital Category for the Rossini album with Joyce di Donato (named Artist of the Year) – Colbran, the Muse, conducted by Edoardo Müller on Virgin Classics. This is the 6th award won by the Rome-based orchestra in little over a year.
The studio recording of Verdi’s Requiem was made during live concerts at the Orchestra’s home, the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and released in 2009. It includes a stunning cast of soloists Anja Harteros, Sonia Ganassi, Rolando Villazon and René Pape with the acclaimed Chorus of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. This is the Accademia di Santa Cecilia’s third award for the Verdi Requiem CD following another choral award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards earlier in the year and Critics Choice at the Classical BRIT Awards.
EMI Classics’ previous recording with Antonio Pappano and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly also won a 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Award in the Opera Category and Angela Gheorghiu in the title role on the disc won Female Artist of the Year at the 2009 Classical BRIT Awards.
EMI Classics will release a new recording of Rossini’s Stabat Mater in November with Antonio Pappano and his Roman orchestrafollowing the studio recording at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome last summer. The stellar cast includes soloists Anna Netrebko, Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee and Ildebrando d’Arcangelo, alongside Santa Cecilia’s celebrated Chorus.
Eric Dingman, President EMI Classics, commented:
“All of us at EMI are incredibly proud of Tony Pappano and Accademia di Santa Cecilia‘s stunning recording of Verdi’s Requiem, and the very enthusiastic response from music lovers internationally. This recognition bestowed upon Tony, the superlative cast, chorus and orchestra by the 2010 Gramophone Awards is the icing on the cake.”
Accademia di Santa Cecilia UK Tour: March 2011
The Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra will return to the UK with Antonio Pappano for a tour in March 2011 to Manchester, Birmingham and Basingstoke. Their programme will include Mahler Symphony No1 and Respighi’s Fountains and Pines of Rome.
Accademia di Santa Cecilia Opening of 2010 – 11 Season in Rome
Rossini’s William Tell – 16, 18 & 20 October 2010
Sala Santa Cecilia, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome
The Rossini Stabat Mater release commences a retrospective of Rossini’s late works and coincides with the opening of the Orchestra’s 2010-2011 season in Rome on 16 October 2010, when Pappano and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia will perform Rossini’s final opera William Tell. The cast includes Gerald Finley in the title role, Matthew Rose and Malin Byström.
Antonio Pappano and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia
In a country first known for opera, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia is a rare example in Italy of a symphony orchestra not attached to an opera house and it is unanimously recognised as Italy’s finest symphonic orchestra. Since taking over as Music Director of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia six years ago, Antonio Pappano has revitalised and galvanised the Orchestra with his enthusiastic spirit, positive energy and consummate musicianship.
This dynamic partnership has returned the orchestra to pole position among the top European orchestras and is proving one of the most inspired orchestral partnerships in the world. Last year, it was voted one of the top 10 orchestras in the world by UK’s Classic FM Magazine. The Chorus of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia has been described by the Independent as “one of the world’s great choirs” and is in great demand on tour both with the Orchestra and on its own.
The Accademia di Santa Cecilia has an impressive heritage. Since its creation in 1908, the Orchestra has collaborated with distinguished conductors and composers including Mahler, Debussy, Strauss, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Respighi, Berio, Stockhausen, Toscanini, Furtwangler, De Sabata, Karajan, Stokowski, Bohm, Kleiber, Celibidache, Sinopoli, Bernstein, Abbado, Muti and Barenboim. Most recently its Music Directors have been Bernstein, Sinopoli, Gatti and Myung Whun Chung. They have imbued in the orchestra the great European symphonic tradition from Beethoven to Shostakovich.
This is Pappano’s first orchestral appointment and it has given him the opportunity to explore the symphonic repertoire more fully and to curate varied, unusual programmes, from the standard repertoire to staged, multi-media productions. Each year, Pappano has commissioned a contemporary Italian composer to write a new symphonic work for the Orchestra.
The Orchestra’s home is at Rome’s hugely popular Auditorium Parco della Musica, a large modern complex of 3 concert halls and an outside amphitheatre, built to house the Orchestra by celebrated Italian architect Renzo Piano 6 years ago. The Auditoriumhas been a huge success for both arts in the capital and across Italy, attracting more than 2.5 million attendees a year. The Auditorium Parco della Musica is situated north of Piazza del Popolo in a new vibrant cultural district on Via Flaminia next to Zaha Hadid’s thrilling Maxxi Centre, a national museum of contemporary creativity, which is soon to open at the end of May.
The Accademia di Santa Cecilia is touring widely across Europe to great critical acclaim and will be returning to the UK in Spring 2011. Over the last two years, the Orchestra has toured to Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Frankfurt, Grand Canaries and Lucerne Festivals.
EMI Classics Recordings
Antonio Pappano records exclusively for EMI Classics. His joint EMI Classics discography with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia so far comprises the Verdi Requiem, Respighi’s Roman Trilogy, the Tchaikovsky Symphonies 4-6, and Puccini’s opera Madama Butterflywith Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann. Their recording of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony was listed in Matthew Rye’s guide to the 1,001 Recordings you must hear before you die.
The studio recording of Santa Cecilia’s Madama Butterfly was made by EMI Classics at the Auditorium Parco della Musica with a stunning line-up including Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann. It was released in March 2009 to worldwide critical acclaim.
1 October, 2010
2010 – 2011 Concert Highlights
Opening of the Season in Rome
16, 18, 20 October
Auditorium Parco della Musica
Rossini William Tell
baritono Gerald Finley (Guillaume) – tenore John Osborn (Arnold) – cover: Brian Hymel – soprano Malin Byström (Mathilde) – soprano Elena Xanthoudakis (Jemmy) – basso Matthew Rose (Walter) – mezzosoprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Edwige) – tenore Celso Albelo (Pécheur) basso Carlo Cigni (Gessler) – baritono Dawid Kimberg (Leuthold) – basso Fréderic Caton (Melchtal) – tenore Carlo Bosi (Rodolphe)
European Tour – UK, Greece, Germany, Belgium
17 to 28 March
17 March Basingstoke – Anvil
Verdi Aida Sinfonia, Liszt Concerto for Piano No1, Mahler No 1
18 Manchester – Bridgewater Hall
Verdi Aida Sinfonia, Liszt Concerto for Piano No1, Mahler No 1 (Respighi Pines of Rome
19 Birmingham – Symphony Hall
Verdi Aida Sinfonia, Liszt Concerto for Piano No1, Mahler No 1
21 Athens
24 Luxembourg
26 Baden
27 Essen
28 Brussels Bozar
FOTO touristime.it