Rossini in viaggio
The Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini Orchestra (FGR Orchestra) was established through the commitment of a group of musicians with relevant artistic experience, both at national and international level. It first performed in Pesaro on February 21st, 2014, at the “Pedrotti” Auditorium of the G. Rossini Conservatory, fast earning worldwide recognition from the audience and the critics.
FGR Orchestra represents a high quality project with deep roots in Rossini’s birthplace, which intends to explore all the expressions of the musical culture of a territory to promote its image in the most important international cultural circuits. The FGR strongly believe that music can be considered an introduction to beauty and creativity and that perfection and talent are to be obtained through commitment and diligence.
The Orchestra has built its mission on these guidelines, giving great value to music as moment of training, confrontation and sharing. M° Michele Antonelli is the President of the FGR Orchestra, as well as its Artistic Director and Quality and Identity Manager, responsible for the management of the projects and the selection of the artists.
The FGR-Orchestra started its activity with a series of initiatives in support of various humanitarian and charity events, such as the World Day against Child Labour, organized by the International Labour Organization in June 2014. The Orchestra made its début at the 2014 Rossini Opera Festival with the opera “Un Viaggio a Reims” and a lyric-symphony recital with contralto Ewa Podles.
The invitation from the renowned DECCA recording company (Universal Music Group) in 2014 to perform in a CD with tenor Juan Diego Florez – devoted to traditional Italian songs and Rossini’s repertoire – highlighted the prestige the Orchestra had gained in such a short period of time. The CDhas been greatly appreciated worldwide since its release in September 2015.
In February 2015 the FGR and the Peter Maag Music Fund started collaborating for “La Bottega” Peter Maag, the renowned opera workshop once created by the great Swiss conductor, and now restored and made to live again by conductor Nicola Guerini, President and Artistic Director of the Peter Maag Music Fund.
The three-year project includes the study and the performance of Mozart’s three operas with Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto: “Le Nozze di Figaro” (2015), “Don Giovanni” (2016), “Cosi fan tutte” (2017), as well as the in-depth study of symphony repertoire, moving from the cycle of Beethoven’s nine Symphonies. Key player of this project with the FGR is M° Donato Renzetti, together with M° Nicola Guerini.
Since then, an important artistic collaboration has been developing with M° Renzetti, who, in consideration of its high artistic level, decided to link his prestigious name to the flourishing image of the newborn orchestra, thus becoming its main Conductor.
Drawing on his past experiences Maestro Renzetti started a new remarkable artistic collaboration with the FGR and created the label “DR-records”, aiming at performing and recording new versions and unpublished works of the most important pages of the symphonic repertoire.
The first project that DR-records intends to set up is the full performance of Gioachino Rossini’s Ouvertures in the critical edition of Fondazione Rossini di Pesaro. The project is divided into four subsequent phases: the first took place at the end of December 2015, the second in June 2016, the third in October and the last one in December 2016.
The FGR held his international début in July 2015 at the Beiteddine Art Festival in Beirut (Lebanon) with the renowned tenor Juan Diego Florez and the Lebanese soprano Joyce El Khoury. Within the programme of Beiteddine Festival, the FGR accompanied also the famous soprano Anna Netrebko, on August 27th.
The year 2016 opened with the New Year’s Concert which the FGR gave in Pesaro, for the season of the Ente Concerti.
On 29th March 2016 the FGR performed with Juan Diego Florez at the London Royal Albert Hall for the Rosenblatt Recitals Series.
In June and October, with Donato Renzetti, in two successful tours, named “Rossini in viaggio” (Rossini on tour) dedicated to the composer’s Symphonies, the Orchestra performed in Pesaro (at the Auditorium Pedrotti, for the European Music Day 2016), Milan (at Sala Verdi of the Conservatory and at Carcano Theatre), Udine (Villa Manin), Salzburg (in the Great Hall of Mozarteum), Venice (at Scuola Grande di San Rocco) and lastly in Rome (Olympic Theatre).
As part of an educational project, in May 2016 the FGR collaborated to the project “Sinfonia por el Perù” with Istituto Comprensivo Don Gaudiano di Pesaro, a music-oriented low secondary school. An ensemble composed of musicians of the FGR and the students from the school performed at the Rossini Theatre the Melologue for Voce Recitante, Chamber Orchestra and Young Choir “The Legend of the two mountains” by the composer Mario Totaro.
The Orchestra has been participating at the Rossini Opera Festival since 2014. In 2015, they performed “Un Viaggio a Reims” (with Rossini Academy interpreters) and “Messa di Gloria” (tenor Juan Diego Florez and soprano Jessica Pratt), in 2016, “Il Turco in Italia”, under the conduction of Speranza Scappucci.
The Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini is recognized as one of the most interesting new figures on the national and international music scene and has become the ambassador on the world stage of the music of Gioachino Rossini - The Swan of Pesaro.
