ABOUT

Ensemble Giardino di Delizie

When passion and art combine
Grand things happen

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THE ENSEMBLE

It all started with passion

ENGLISH

The GIARDINO DI DELIZIE is a dynamic and creative female Baroque Ensemble that was founded in 2014 in Rome by its artistic director Ewa Anna Augustynowicz. Its members are all specialists in the field of historical performance practice, having studied with eminent international masters such as E. Onofri, E. Gatti, F. Pavan, M. Testori, B. Hoffmann, Ch. Rousset, E. Baiano, E. Mascardi etc. They also play regularly with other ensembles, including Les Eléments, Divino Sospiro, Capella Cracoviensis, Accademia Montis Regalis, Europa Galante, Arianna Art Ensemble, Collegium Pro Musica, Quatuor Mosaiques, Concerto Romano, Accordone and Pomo d’Oro, I Barocchisti etc.

The ensemble is based in Poland and Italy and since its foundation has pursued its activity in Italy and abroad, playing at many internationally renowned festivals and venues, such as the Almisonis Melos Festival, the Circle of the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence (Rome), Rome Polish Institute of Culture, Filarmonica Romana, Festival Sulle Ombre del Cusanino, Vantaa Music Festival (Helsinki) and the Oude Musik Festival (Utrecht). It has also taken part in various festivals in Poland, including the Schola Cantorum Early Music Festival, Wilanow Palace Warsaw, Società Dante Alighieri Katowice, Barok na Spiszu, Festival Misericordia, Szczecin Baroque Music Festival, Maj z Muzyką Dawną Festival, as well as performing for the Festival de Música Antiga dels Pirineus (Spain) Pietà de’ Turchini (Naples), Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio etc. In 2018, in collaboration with the Polish Institute of Culture in Rome and Polish Consolate in Milan, Giardino di Delizie performed Polish Baroque music in various prestigious venues all over Italy, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Polish independence (Turin University, Società del Giardino in Milan, Museum of Instruments in Rome).

The Giardino di Delizie musicians believe in the need to “saper ben parlare per ben suonare”. Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, its artistic director and PhD scholar, having had always a multitasking and creative personality, is focused on research in the field of musicology and history of music with particular regard to the Roman and Polish Baroque repertoire, rediscovering forgotten composers and establishing links between the two countries. This is, in fact, the main characteristic of the ensemble’s activity and its main goal. The intensity and excitement of their performances is also the fruit of their extensive historical research, which has led to the rediscovery of masterpieces by Italian composers centred in Rome, and those of Polish and Italian composers active at the court of the Polish kings.

The ensemble’s first recording (world premiere) featured Lonati’s Sinfonie a tre, released by Brilliant Classics in 2019, which received widespread critical acclaim. The American magazine “Fanfare” wrote: “These are spirited performances, notable not just for their technical polish, but also for their heart and human excitement. I can’t imagine this level of achievement being surpassed anytime soon, if at all.”

The group’s second recording Gems of the Polish Baroque, devoted to 17th century Polish instrumental music, was released in March 2020 by Brilliant Classics. Ruch Muzyczny, a renown Polish Music Magazine described it as “the best recording of the 17th century Polish instrumental music as yet”.

Its third CD featured the first modern recording of the 10 sinfonie a tre by Lelio Colista, another Roman composer admired in his own time and inexplicably forgotten by posterity. It was also highly praised in specialist publications and the general press and nominated to the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in January 2021. 

As Giuseppina La Face wrote in the Italian daily paper Il Fatto Quotidiano “The Ensemble exalts both the serene severity of the counterpoint and the full, gentle sonority of the music with elegant phrasing and clear rhythmic contrasts that are never aggressive. An excellent performance, with the added value of focusing attention on a hitherto neglected composer of quality, thereby enriching our knowledge of music in Rome during the 17th century.

The fourth CD by Giardino di Delizie, Stradella Complete Violin Sinfonias published in June 2021 by Brilliant Classics was given 5 stars by the German Music Magazine Pizzicato: „Giardino di Delizie is convincing in its elegant élan, its sense of appropriate tempi and the works’ tonal idiosyncrasies, which transmits all the music’s vibrations and reminds us that the basso continuo is the backbone of this music. This should not prevent us from highlighting the rhetoric of soloist Ewa Anna Augustynowicz“.

In April 2022 the Ensemble released the album Alla Polacca containing baroque music pieces inspired by Poland and its folklore, published by the Japanese label DaVinci Publishing. It was nominated to the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik in July 2022. Ruch Muzyczny 18/2022 summarized it in this way: “…The element that allows to highlight national distinctiveness in the simplest way is metrorhythmics. So the dances – with their accentuation, tempos and character. The Roman ensemble does this suggestively, not shying away from slight exaggeration – after all, it finds mazurka rhythms in pieces in which other performers do not go beyond the accepted convention, for example in Sentinelli and Bentrovata by Adam Jarzębski. And it should be known that this is a very interesting approach, bringing a breath of fresh air into the Polish repertoire canon. The artists are eager to emphasize the modal layer, extracting raw bourdon from the scores and ornamenting the melodies in an original way… Most of the pieces are in trio arrangement, with Ewa Anna Augustynowicz and Katarzyna Solecka exchanging in leading the parts of the first violins. They dialogue and interact very well with the rest of the ensemble, and their virtuosity and unconventional imagination contribute to giving the whole production an effective face.”

In September the ensemble released its recent CD for Brilliant Classics with the complete Trio Sonatas by the Italian female composer Isabella Leonarda.

 

ITALIANO

GIARDINO DI DELIZIE è un dinamico e creativo ensemble femminile di musica antica, fondato dalla violinista e direttrice artistica del gruppo Ewa Anna Augustynowicz. E’ un Team di musiciste provenienti dalle più importanti istituzioni musicali italiane ed europee, cresciute sotto le amorevoli cure di maestri di fama internazionale quali Enrico Onofri, Marco Ceccato, Andrea Coen, Giovanni Togni, Evangelina Mascardi, perfezionandosi altresì con nomi del calibro di Coin, Beyer, Biondi, Vestidello, Skalka, Sinkovsky, Testori, Gatti, Valli, Ogg, Holtslag, Brown, Tampieri, Florio, Bonizzoni, Rousset ecc. Oltre all’alto livello di formazione e specializzazione, le componenti del gruppo collaborano stabilmente con diversi ensembles di fama internazionale, quali Capella Cracoviensis, Accademia Montis Regalis, Europa Galante, Concerto Romano, Concerto Italiano, Pomo d’Oro, Divino Sospiro, Concerto de’ Cavalieri, Musica Antigua Latina ecc.

Composto principalmente da artiste di origine italiana e di nazionalità polacca, L’Ensemble Giardino di Delizie ha incentrato fin dal suo esordio la propria ricerca musicale sulla produzione seicentesca di questi due grandi paesi. Fin dal principio, infatti, le componenti del gruppo hanno voluto portare all’interno della formazione le proprie specifiche radici culturali e i peculiari linguaggi musicali, approfondendo entrambi, a volte fondendoli, altre volte ponendoli in antitesi per esaltarne le differenze, e facendo di questo scambio e di questa dialettica il proprio punto di forza. Le musiciste, fortemente convinte dell’esigenza di “saper ben parlare per ben suonare” partono proprio da uno studio sulla fonetica delle rispettive lingue, e del tentativo di rendere il più verosimilmente possibile nella propria musica le caratteristiche della propria lingua. Una delle principali caratteristiche dell’Ensemble è infatti la ricerca di questa compenetrazione tra diverse scritture musicali dalle caratteristiche sintattiche e dalle suggestioni fonetiche tanto diverse: da un lato la dolce sinuosità tutta italiana dell’ampio fraseggio corelliano, dall’altro la grintosa verve della fonetica est europea nelle danze di Marcin Mielczewski.

L’Ensemble ha sede in Polonia e in Italia; fin dalla sua fondazione ha svolto la sua attività presso importanti istituzioni di Roma quali la Filarmonica Romana, il Circolo delle Forze Armate presso il Ministero della Difesa, Sala Umberto, Museo degli Strumenti Musicali, Istituto Polacco di Roma, e partecipato a festival e rassegne di musica antica quali Almisonis Melos, Sulle Orme del Cusanino, Archetto Latium Music Festival. I Concerti di Campagna, Istituto Dante Aligheri Katowice (PL), Musica Antica a Palazzo di Wilanow (PL), il BRQ Vantaa Festival (F), l’Oude Musik Festival (NL), Schola Cantorum Festival (PL), Barok na Spiszu (PL), Maj z Muzyką Dawną (PL), Festival Misericordia (PL), Szczecin Festival di Musica Antica (PL), Pieta’ de’ Turchini (Napoli), Societa’ del Giardino (Milano), Università di Torino, Consolato di Polonia (Milano), Festival de Musica Antigua de Pirineus (ES), Dramma per Musica (PL) ecc.

Il gruppo ha inciso  CD per l’etichetta internazionale Brilliant Classics e 1 per

Da Vinci Publishing:

12.2018 Lonati//Complete Sinfonias

”Rivista Musica Maggio 2019: “si tratta di un’incisione affatto pregevole per impostazione stilistica, assoluta padronanza della scrittura, coesione e unita` di intenti tra tutte le soliste (il complesso e` formato da sole donne): questo repertorio ha potuto cosı` contare su una sicura valorizzazione, tale da permettere una maggior conoscenza dell’autore, finora incluso solo in qualche sparuta antologia.”

03.2020 Gems of the Polish Baroque

Musicandosite Aprile 2020: “L’essenza dei cd però sta proprio nella proposta e riscoperta di queste musiche e di questi compositori. L’Ensemble ne offre una lettura chiara e lodevole anche dal punto di vista della prassi esecutiva, che risulta essere sempre impeccabile, quindi valore aggiunto al progetto.”

09.2020 Colista//Sinfonie a tre

finalista del premio Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik

06.2021 Stradella //Sinfonie a violino solo

Early Music Review: This double CD set presents all 12 of Alessandro Stradella’s Violin Sinfonias and two of his Sinfonias a tre played by Ewa Anna Augustynowicz, who also directs a continuo ensemble of cello, archlute/guitar/theorbo and organ/harpsichord. In keeping with the music of a man who knew how to live dangerously, there is a wonderful almost improvisatory spontaneity about these performances, which incorporate inspired ornamentation. In the Sinfonias a tre, in effect trio sonatas, the archlute takes the second melodic voice while the organ plays continuo, an approach which works very well indeed. 

Instrumental music is only a very small part of Stradella’s output, but his confident writing for this chamber ensemble with its vividly wayward approach to harmonic progressions and mercurial changes of rhythm is wonderfully engaging, especially when played with such imaginative musicality as it is here. Augustynowicz plays a warm-toned and declamatory Baroque violin by the Ravenna maker, Marco Minnozzi.

04.2022 Alla Polacca. Polish influences in Baroque Music

finalista nel premio Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik

Bresciaoggi 7.06.2022: “Se diciamo «Polacca» il nostro pensiero va immediatamente, automaticamente, a Chopin e alle sue meravigliose composizioni pianistiche che portano questo titolo. Ma è chiaro che la Polonia in musica non si limita certamente solo a questo, e questo cd Da Vinci, con un gruppo strumentale tutto al femminile come l’Ensemble Giardino di Delizie diretto dalla violinista Ewa Anna Augustinovicz, ce ne da un’ampia quanto interessante conferma…”

09.2022 Leonarda//Complete Triosonatas

 

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THE NAME

The origin of Giardino di Delizie

In the late medieval period, the name “Giardino di Delizie” was used to describe the gardens of medical plants cultivated around monastries. Later, at the rise of the so called Signorie, these spaces were transformed into places of pleasure and business meetings and were usually located close to villas, castles and monastries. It was in particularly the Medici family who managed to create imaginative and refined gardens around Florence, real masterpieces where the study of plants became an art. The water with brilliant and creative solutions became the undisputed first lady of these places. The fountains and ponds full of fish were the centre of amazement and pleasure of these new gardens where the original architecture became a sort of a symbol of a new life style. In the Baroque era, beside the waterworks these gardens were decorated with the works of art of different kind, in particularly with the ancient sculptures, and thus they delighted its visitors, often guests of certain importance, and constituted an inspiration for the talented contemporary artists visiting these amazing places.

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