Ensemble Hortensia Virtuosa

Ensemble Hortensia Virtuosa was founded in 2012 and takes its name from the sonata for violin and basso continuo in Marco Uccellini’s Op. 4 collection, published in 1645. It made its debut at the sixteenth edition of Theate Mvsica Antiqva in Chieti and has performed in Italy and abroad, including Le Vie del Barocco in Genoa, Apuliantiqua in Monopoli, the Victoria International Arts Festival in Gozo, Malta, and concerts in Zurich.

The ensemble explores chamber music from the seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century through historically informed performance, using original sources and period instruments or faithful copies. Its approach to sound draws on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century ideals of imitating nature and the human voice. The members have studied and worked with specialists including Enrico Gatti, Sigiswald Kuijken, Amandine Beyer and Antonio Florio. Its repertoire encompasses a broad selection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century chamber music, including the sonata da chiesa tradition.

Its recordings include B. Bernardi’s Sonatas, Op. 2, for Baryton (2016), and Pietro Marchitelli’s trio sonatas for Da Vinci Classics, directed by violinist Giovanni Rota.