LA LIRA DI ORFEO Ensemble (Italy)
Artistic director and soloist RAFFAELE PE (countertenor, Italy)
ANTONIO VIVALDI – Cantatas: Amor hai vinto, RV 683; Care selve, amici prati, RV 671; Qual per ignoto calle, RV 677; Alla caccia dell’alme e de’ cori, RV 670; Cessate, omai cessate, RV 684
Concerto for strings in D minor Madrigalesco, RV 129
Sonata for violin in A minor, Op. 2 No. 12, RV 32
Sonata for cello in E flat major, RV39
“He is undoubtedly a baroque star”, wrote The Sunday Times about Italian countertenor Raffaele Pe, who not only performs around the world with a wide range of renowned musicians, but also founded the baroque music ensemble La Lira di Orfeo in 2015. Pe has collaborated with musicians such as Jordi Savall, John Eliot Gardiner, William Christie, Giovanni Antonini, Enrico Onofri and others, and has appeared in major opera houses from Teatro alla Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice to the Staatsoper in Berlin, the Theater an der Wien in Vienna and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
La Lira di Orfeo is a collective of musicians, artists and scholars who have gained international recognition in just several years of its existence, performing in London, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, the Handel Festival in Halle and elsewhere. The ensemble is renowned for its award-winning recordings and unique programmes (Handel’s Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Piccinni’s Cesare in Egitto, Scarlatti’s Griselda, Porpora’s Orfeo, Angelica e Medoro, Virtuosissimo, etc).
Performing in Lithuania for the first time, the musicians will present a programme Vivaldi Cantatas, the tour of which will start in October at London’s Wigmore Hall and will arrive in Vilnius at the end of December. The unique five cantatas for alto and basso continuo were written during the Venetian master’s stay in Mantua between 1718 and 1720. The governor of Mantua, the patron Filippo d’Assia-Darmstadt, invited Vivaldi to work as Kapellmeister at his court, and he composed secular music on themes such as hunting, nature and love. The concert will also feature instrumental music inspired by these cantatas.
