A word from Adrian to mark La Serenissima’s 30th Anniversary

How time flies when you’re having fun. It is almost exactly 30 years ago to the day when La Serenissima gave their first concert at Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road, London.

My determination to start a personal crusade on behalf of Vivaldi was born from the fact that I had long been amazed by the antipathy with which Vivaldi’s music was received. Interestingly, it was the Brits who started this nitpicking tradition way back in the eighteenth century. Critics included the Geordie,  Charles Avison, who described the works of Vivaldi, Locatelli and Tessarini as ‘amusements fit for children’.

The fact that Vivaldi’s music was almost dead and buried alongside the great man himself, was par for the course in those days, with the music of Corelli, Handel and Tartini providing rare exceptions to the rule.

Fast forward to the twentieth century, and the jibes started coming thick and fast almost in exact tandem with the Vivaldi revival itself. Figures such as Fritz Kreisler, who passed off one of his own works as a concerto by Vivaldi, were few and far between.

I guess you could say that Vivaldi is a bit of a marmite composer: you either like him or you don’t, and although it was clear growing up in the 1980s that Vivaldi’s concertos (and to a degree, his sonatas) were here to stay, the operas, cantatas and sacred music were rather conspicuous by their absence.

It was for this reason that I chose the serenata La Sena festeggiante (RV 693) for the ensemble’s first outing, an excellent introduction for anyone to the ‘operatic’ output of Vivaldi. I was assisted by my co director and fellow-student of the Royal College of Music, Giulia Nuti, whose knowledge of Italian (she is Anglo-Italian herself) was crucial in those early years at the RCM when we worked through no fewer than three operas; all were broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and all were UK premieres. We also gave concerts of concertos and sacred music during our stint at the RCM.

It was a steep learning curve, and I think it would be fair to say that I didn’t have a clue how to direct an orchestra (or singers for that matter) in those earliest performances. But I guess you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette and the fact that we’re still here thirty years later means that we must have been doing something right!

We have never received core-funding and because of this, our finances have always been stretched perilously thin. Nevertheless, we have still made 29 albums (since 2003), won two Gramophone Awards and received an Ordine della Stella d’Italia from the Italian state. Not bad considering our short shoestring.

The classical music industry is virtually unrecognisable compared to how it was when I left the RCM in 1997. UK festivals are in decline everywhere, and concerts are ever harder to come by. Covid didn’t help, and neither did Brexit.

Even so, we are looking forward to our first residency at Wigmore Hall that starts this November as well as the release of Vivaldi’s Opus 8 in 2025; this celebrates not only our 30th anniversary, but also the 300th anniversary of the publication of this collection. This will therefore include our second recording of The Four Seasons, the first volume of which was signed off a few days ago and I am quietly confident that this absolutely trumps the recording of 2015.

So, here’s to the next 30 years! More Brescianello, Dall’Abaco and Tartini will no doubt be on the way, and let’s not forget that we still have around 150 Vivaldi violin concertos to perform. They certainly don’t get any easier, but in a way that’s all part of the fun.

La Serenissima and Nicola Matteis the Younger at Hintlesham Hall

For a UK group who specialises in Italian music of the settecento, it isn’t often that one can play in a venue at home that has direct associations with the music. Hintlesham Hall is one such venue, and although we can’t be certain that Matteis ever visited Hintlesham, his wife, Susanna, certainly did.

Susanna Timperley (née Sparrow) came from a devout Catholic background; her first husband, Henry Timperley (Lord of Hintlesham Hall in Suffolk) was a keen supporter of the pro-Catholic James II and her father, Sir John Sparrow, had been with the deposed King’s Jacobite troops at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Following James’ defeat in Ireland, Sir John fled to the exiled Jacobite court in St Germain-en-Laye, France, where he was soon joined by his newly widowed daughter. She eventually returned with her son to Hintlesham in 1694.

Information relating to Susanna then becomes rather sparse until her marriage to Matteis in 1700, though as the couple already had children, they must have been cohabiting for a while. When one takes into consideration that she was 13 years older than Matteis and from a much higher strata of society, eyebrows much surely have been raised.

Hintlesham Hall is now a splendid hotel and we were fortunate to be invited by Kirker Holidays to give three concerts around the theme of Matteis. In addition to music by Matteis himself and Caldara, Fux and Vivaldi (with whom Matteis was linked), we took the opportunity to delve into the music of Matteis’ youth including music by his father (also called Nicola Matteis), John Blow and the great Henry Purcell.

We look forward to creating future La Serenissima projects for Kirker Holidays – watch this space!

We continue to seek funds to record the second volume of the Opus 8 and other projects in the pipeline. We are lucky to have had the support of many wonderful colleagues, friends and volunteers over three decades. Thank you for journeying with us this far – your support keeps our mission alive 30 years on!

Adrian

Vivaldi x2²

Our latest album, Vivaldi x2², is out tomorrow (2nd August!). You may have already heard it as Classic FM’s album of the week or seen the 5* review in The Times earlier this week:

“…every concerto from Chandler’s team and that protean composer Vivaldi brings it’s own delights…”

Geoff Brown of The Times wryly observes that “after being obsessed by the composer and his musical world for more than 30 years, Chandler by now is almost Vivaldi incarnate.” He’s probably got a point!

We would love for this second volume of Vivaldi Double Concerti to reach the top of the charts, as the first volume did. You can help us by saving it to your streaming platforms, downloading digital versions, or purchasing from one of the approved sites here. Every stream helps. We aren’t saying you should listen to the album on repeat from midnight, but that’s what we’ll be doing.

Concerts coming up!

7pm, 8 October – Campden Music: Music from the Italian States*
Subscription series
4pm, 13 October – The Tung, Liverpool: Music from the Italian States*
Tickets available now
3pm, 3 November – Oxford Chamber Music Society: Music from the Italian States
Tickets available now
7:30pm, 18 November – Wigmore Hall: Giro d’Italia, The A-Z of Italian Baroque 
Tickets available now

*concerts kindly supported by Continuo Foundation

Thank you for all your support,

Adrian & Camilla

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