Violinist Fabio Biondi and his ensemble, Europa Galante’s most recent album is Antonio Vivaldi’s La Stravaganza. Biondi and company perform five of the six concertos that were included in an edition by the English publisher and sometime music pirate, John Walsh. Biondi spoke with Ariama about Vivaldi, performing Baroque music and American audiences.
Why use the Walsh edition of La Stravaganza?
John Walsh’s edition was published ten years after the Vivaldi-authorized Amsterdam collection. It’s a short collection of only six concertos and that’s a good thing because Vivaldi is a fantastic composer, but his style is uniform. So six concertos is good for a modern audience and for a recording.
Walsh’s London edition is also appealing because it shows how popular Vivaldi was outside of Italy. We like the English connection and it inspired us to use the zither, a popular English instrument of the time, in the continuo. There’s another interesting point about the edition. In Italian, the title “La Stravaganza” suggests strange or unusual, but I don’t think those elements are in the music. The title was probably added for marketing purposes because 18th century audiences were very attracted to titles like this.
You are so closely associated with Vivaldi. What’s his appeal?
For violinists he’s so interesting because of his contributions to the development of technique and virtuoso style. His music is very stimulating for a performer, and audiences love the extroverted style of his great music. But it’s very important when speaking about Vivaldi to make the distinction between his great music and his conventional music, because he wrote lots of conventional music. I’m very proud and happy to play Vivaldi’s music, but we should remember that when we compare his music to his contemporaries – Marcello, Albinoni and others – we find great quality too. My hope is that Vivaldi is a bridge to the rest of 18th century Italian music, because there are a lot of composers who are waiting to be discovered.
You and Europa Galante have been devoting more time to opera.
Without a study of vocal music we really can’t understand the music of the 18th century. I’m very passionate about opera seria of the 18th century and fascinated by ancient Greek and Roman culture, opera seria evokes this culture so well. But sometimes it’s frustrating. I’m Italian and live in a country where people love opera, but it’s a scandal that some people do not know there was opera before Rossini. I always say, “Please start at the right point of the story of opera – at the beginning, not late.”
What do you think of the current state of historically informed performance?
I’ve now spent 30 years playing baroque violin and everyday I’m excited as a child because we are constantly learning new things and are discovering new documents that destroy old conceptions about technique. It’s like being a doctor, when you perform a simple procedure today it’s not like it was ten years ago – techniques change. But it’s important to remember that as a performer you are part of a very long process. It’s stupid to evangelize in the performance world by saying, “This is true, this is wrong, this is right.” I still have the feeling that I don’t completely understand everything about performance, so everyday I look for better ways to understand and to play better. If we have this attitude the future for Baroque music will be better, if not, we can just finish now.
We always enjoy your visits to the U.S.
I love your country and the audiences are great. I believe that to love music you have to be like a child and that’s exactly what I feel in the United States. The people are coming to the concerts for the pure enjoyment of the music and that’s the right attitude. When I go to a concert it’s just to hear the music and not to pass judgment about whether it’s good or not good, or whether I love or don’t love the performers, that’s not the reason. I go to concerts to discover new music and that’s what we feel in the United States and it makes us happy to visit.
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by Craig Zeichner
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