I Barocchisti

I Barocchisti are internationally acclaimed as one of the leading ensembles dedicated to early music performed on historical instruments. They carry forward the legacy of the Lugano Chamber Music Society, founded by Edwin Loehrer and now led by Diego Fasolis. Over the past decades, I Barocchisti have collaborated closely with the Coro della Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI) on numerous concerts and recordings, including Bach productions for the ARTS label, widely regarded as definitive.

I Barocchisti have appeared at major music festivals around the world, including in Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Oman, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

One of the ensemble’s notable recording projects was Mission (DECCA, 2012), a multimedia project devoted to the rediscovery of the music of Agostino Steffani created with mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli. Presented on an extensive European tour, the project won the ECHO Prize in 2013 and was nominated for the 56th Grammy Awards in 2014.

DECCA also released Steffani’s Stabat Mater and the instrumental album Danze e Ouvertures in 2013; both were later included in the exclusive box set The Steffani Project.

In 2014, the recording of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (ERATO, 2013), performed with Philippe Jaroussky and Julia Lezhneva, was taken on tour to Amsterdam, Essen, Baden-Baden, and Lucerne. The project was met with great acclaim from both audiences and critics, and received the award for Best Recording of the Year at the 2014 International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).

In 2014–15, I Barocchisti recorded the album St. Petersburg with Cecilia Bartoli for DECCA. This was followed by a highly acclaimed tour with performances in every European capital.

In 2015, they released a new Vivaldi anthology with Maurice Steger (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi), which they performed in concerts in Switzerland and across Europe, including at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

In the operatic field, after making their debut at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2013 and returning in 2014, I Barocchisti appeared once again at both the Whitsun and Summer Festivals in 2015. There they presented a new production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en T auride and a concert performance of Handel’s Semele.

In 2017, the orchestra accompanied the French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky on a European tour, with performances in Versailles, Vienna, Dortmund, Amsterdam, and Zaragoza. They presented their joint recording, the album La Storia di Orfeo (Warner, 2017), devoted to Monteverdi, Rossi, and Sartorio.

During the 2017–18 season, I Barocchisti performed a recital with Lucia Cirillo at the Musikverein in Vienna and also served as orchestra-in-residence at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées for a production of Gluck’s Orfeo, directed by Robert Carsen.

In September 2018, a collaboration began with LAC Lugano for staged opera productions, including Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. I Barocchisti and the Coro della Radiotelevisione svizzera also perform concerts as part of their own season in Lugano.

In addition, they make recordings for RSI and for other labels and broadcasters, including ARTE, and continue to appear at major festivals and concert series around the world.