1 September 2017 – Adrian Chandler and his ensemble La Serenissima have won the 2017 Gramophone Award in the Baroque Instrumental category for their recording The Italian Job: Baroque Instrumental Music from the Italian States (AVIE Records AV2371).

This Gramophone Award is the second for Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima, who took the Baroque Instrumental prize in 2010 for Vivaldi: The French Connection (AVIE Records AV2178), featuring concertos for flute, violin, bassoon and strings.

On The Italian Job, Chandler and La Serenissima, the period-instrument ensemble founded by Chandler in 1994, indulge in colourful concertos and sinfonias featuring oboes, bassoons, trumpets, trombone, timpani and strings. The music emanates from four Italian cities, each with a rich musical heritage that produced some of the finest composers of the Italian baroque era: Venice (Tomaso Albinoni, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Vivaldi), Bologna (Giuseppe Torelli), Padua (Giuseppe Tartini) and Rome (Arcangelo Corelli).

“La Serenissima have a glorious and all-too-rare ability to make one’s pulse race afresh with every new project,” praised Gramophone in its “Editor’s Choice” review of The Italian Job. Critic Charlotte Gardner asserted, “In short, were I asked to condense this review down to two simple words, they would be: buy it.”

Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima are the first AVIE artists to win two Gramophone Awards. This year’s Award is the sixth garnered by the label in its15-year history. Previous winners are Andrew Parrott and his Taverner Choir & Players for Western Wind: Mass by John Taverner & Court Music for Henry VIII, Chandler’s and La Serenissima’s Vivaldi: The French Connection, My Life in Music, the absorbing DVD by guitarist Julian Bream who also received Gramophone’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos by Trevor Pinnock and the European Brandenburg Ensemble, and Orlando Gibbons Consorts by the viol quartet Phantasm.

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For further information, image or interview requests, please contact Melanne Mueller, melanne@avierecords.com, +44 (0) 7788 662 461 or +1 917 907 2785.

title: The Italian Job: Baroque Instrumental Music from the Italian States

artists: Rachel Chaplin and Gail Hennessy, oboes; Peter Whelan, bassoon; La Serenissima; Adrian Chandler, violin and director

price: full price

release date: February 2017

selection number: AV 2371

track list:
Antonio Caldara (1670 – 1736)
Sinfonia for 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, timpani, violin, strings & continuo in C (15.00)
1. I. Allegro (5.31)
2. II. Andante, piano [e] staccato (4.47)
3. III. Allegro (4.42)
Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713)
Sinfonia to Santa Beatrice d’Este for strings & continuo in D Minor (10.11)
4. I. Grave (2.35)
5. II. Allegro (1.41)
6. III. Adagio (0.44)
7. IV. Largo assai (2.57)
8. V. Vivace (2.13)
Giuseppe Tartini (1692 – 1770)
Concerto for violin, strings & continuo in E, D 51 (16.49)
9. I. Allegro (6.39)
10. II. Grave: “Tortorella bacie…” (5.29)
11. III. Allegro assai (4.41)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741)
Concerto Alla rustica for 2 oboes, strings & continuo in G, RV 151 (4.16)
12. I. Presto (1.10)
13. II. Adagio (1.07)
14. III. Allegro (1.58)
Concerto for bassoon, strings & continuo in C, RV 467 (11.11)
15. I. Allegro (4.08)
16. II. Adagio (2.54)
17. III. Allegro (4.08)
Tomaso Albinoni (1671 – 1751) (11.07)
Concerto for 2 oboes, strings & continuo in F, Op. 9/3 (11.07)
18. I. Allegro (4.37)
19. II. Adagio (2.32)
20. III. Allegro (3.58)
Giuseppe Torelli (1658 – 1709)
Sinfonia for 4 trumpets, timpani, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 violins, 2 cellos, strings & continuo in C, G 33 (7.45)
21. I. Allegro (3.49)
22. II. Adagio (0.25)
23. III. Presto (3.30)
Total time: 76.23

Recorded 23 – 26 August 2016, St. John’s Smith Square, London
Produced, engineered and edited by Simon Fox-Gal

NOTES TO EDITORS
Born on Merseyside in 1974, Adrian Chandler is recognised as one of today’s leading interpreters of Italian baroque music. Whilst a student at the Royal College of Music, Adrian founded La Serenissima with whom he has performed as Director/Soloist at major festivals internationally, and has recorded extensively for the Avie label. He has been Guest Director/Soloist with many ensembles, most recently at the Oslo Chamber Music Festival. Adrian’s performances have been broadcast extensively worldwide; his disc of virtuoso violin sonatas Per Monsieur Pisendel 2 released in 2014 attracted rave reviews and featured on the soundtrack of hit American TV series The Originals. His interpretation of The Four Seasons was released in 2015 to outstanding critical reception. Known for his virtuosity and commitment as a performer, Adrian also works tirelessly to research and edit new repertoire for La Serenissima. He held an Arts and Humanities Research Council fellowship in 2006 at Southampton University to research the development of the North Italian violin concerto 1690 – 1740, and subsequently a two-year post as Turner Sims Professor. He is curating La Serenissima’s first ever residency The Grand Tour at St John’s Smith Square, London during the 2016/17 season.

La Serenissima was formed in 1994 for a performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s La Sena festeggiante and has now firmly established itself as one of the leading exponents of the music of eighteenth century Venice and connected composers. Since its first CD release in 2003, La Serenissima has been universally applauded by publications including BBC Music Magazine, Diapason, Gramophone Magazine, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Fanfare Magazine, American Record Guide, The Strad, La Stampa and Goldberg Magazine for its performances on the Avie Label. Their records have variously been nominated for a Gramophone Award (on multiple occasions), included in an elite Forbes List and featured on a hit American television soundtrack. La Serenissima celebrated its 21st birthday by recording Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Manchester version) alongside works for violino in tromba marina: a reconstruction project undertaken by violinist Adrian Chandler, luthier David Rattray and the musicologist Michael Talbot which was a first in modern times. Released in September 2015, the record entered the UK Specialist Classical Chart at number 8, was featured as ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone Magazine, ‘Concerto Choice’ by BBC Music Magazine, voted ‘Classical Album of the Year’ by the Irish Times and was ranked in the Top 3 Picks of Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library – The Four Seasons’ from a catalogue of albums dating back to the 1940s. The ensemble prides itself on bringing seldom-heard works to the concert platform, including Vivaldi’s operas Ottone in villa, Giustino, Tito Manlio, La Fida Ninfa, Catone in Utica and L’Olimpiade as well as a host of instrumental rarities, many of which have been committed to disc. Works by other composers feature as well, such as Albinoni’s Il nascimento dell’Aurora and sacred vocal works by Caldara. La Serenissima has appeared at many of the UK’s leading festivals including Bath Bach, Beverley, Buxton, Cheltenham, Lichfield, South Bank, Spitalfields, Swansea International, Warwick and York Early Music festivals, and venues including St George’s Bristol, Snape Maltings, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall. The group has also appeared in Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Mexico and Spain to great acclaim. Nearly the entire repertoire of La Serenissima is edited by Director Adrian Chandler from manuscript or contemporary printed sources, a testament to its commitment and passion for rare and exciting Italian music, a feat which makes it unique amongst its peers.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2017, independent classical label AVIE Records has been hailed as “trail-blazing” (ArkivMusic.com), “adventurous” (New York Times), “enterprising (Gramophone),” and “admirable” (The Sunday Times). With a catalogue of over 300 titles, AVIE’s roster features such artists as Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort, Apollo’s Fire, Jon Lord, Julian Bream, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, Rachel Barton Pine, Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to six Gramophone Awards, AVIE collected a Grammy® Award in 2016 for Laura Karpman’s creation ASK YOUR MAMA. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Monica Huggett, The Dufay Collective and Antonio Meneses have received Grammy® nominations. The label has received numerous other international citations and has charted dozens of albums on the Billboard classical and UK specialist classical charts.