Concerto Scirocco & Voces Suaves
Biography Concerto Scirocco & Voces Suaves
Concerto Scirocco
The ensemble Concerto Scirocco, founded in June 2009, is dedicated to historically informed performance of Renaissance and Baroque music. The group members are young talented artists who met during their studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. This eclectic ensemble of early instruments is united by a common enthusiasm for the music of the renaissance, of the early baroque and of the baroque Era, and seeks to combine personal creativity with an awareness of historical performance practices garnered through experience of the world of early music.
The diversity and the flexibility of the ensemble allows for performance of both earlier and later music, from fifteenth-century alta capella to high Baroque. There is also scope to expand the core ensemble to involve other instrumentalists and singers to meet the demands of different repertoire, and also for core ensemble members to double on related instruments in keeping with the practice of multi-instrumentalists of the age. Concerto Scirocco considers this flexibility to be of great importance in understanding the development of early music throughout the centuries.
Concerto Scirocco was invited to perform in various renowned Festivals such as: Ceresio Estate Festival in Lugano, Festival Cantar di Pietre Ticino, Davos Festival Young Artists in Concert, Musiksommer am Zürichsee in Bubikon by Zürich, Festival Altstadt Serenaden Basel, Konzertreihe Midi Musique at the Theater Basel, Les Concerts de l’ADMA in Fribourg, Festival di Musica Antica in Magnano, Italy, Fabulous Fringe Festival in Utrecht, Holland, Festival Alte Musik Live in Berlin, Festival Freunde Alter Musik Basel, La Tribune des Jeunes Musiciens Genève, Les Concerts de Romainmôtier, Festival AMIA Alsace, Festival La Folia Rougemont, Festival Les Riches Heures de Valère Sion, Festtage Alte Musik Basel, CaronAntica Festival, Festival I Concerti delle Camelie Locarno, Festival Misteria Paschalia Krakow. Concerto Scirocco was broadcasted live for RSR Espace 2, Radio Svizzera Italiana Rete 2 and Concertzender.nl.
The first CD of Concerto Scirocco, in collaboration with the vocal ensemble Voces Suaves, is dedicated to the work of venetian composer Giovanni Croce and was released by the label ARCANA/Outhere Music. The CD was rated 5 diapason from Diapason Magazine, 5 stars from Classica Magazine and was nominated for the “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2018” in the category “early music”.
Voces Suaves
which performs Renaissance and Baroque music with solo voices, is a vocal ensemble based in Basel. Taking into account the insights of historical performance practice, the ensemble strives for captivating rhetoric combined with a warm and full overall sound that makes the music come alive with emotion. By virtue of the intensive collaboration, a great familiarity within the musical work has evolved.
The ensemble, founded in 2012 by Tobias Wicky, is made up of a core of eight professional singers of whom most have a connection with the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. After the ensemble had been shaped over several years by Francesco Saverio Pedrini, it has worked without a musical director since 2016. Consequently, the creative will of each individual member is indispensable for the attainment of the artistic result. The formation varies depending on the program. Instrumentalists are incorporated when necessary.
The repertoire contains a broad selection of Italian madrigals, works of the Early German Baroque, and larger-scaled Italian oratorios and Masses. In planning the programs, care is taken to include works by forgotten composers, such as Lodovico Agostini or Giovanni Croce, alongside those of well-known masters like Monteverdi or Schütz.
Important performances have taken Voces Suaves to prestigious festivals throughout Europe, including the Festival d’Ambronay, the Festival de Saintes, the Freunde Alter Musik Basel, the Monteverdi Festival Cremona, the Musica Antiqua Festival Bruges, the Festival Potsdam Sanssouci, and the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik. In the years 2014–16 the ensemble participated in the European promotion program “eeemerging, Emerging European Ensembles Project.”
Voces Suaves regularly joins together with other ensembles in order to perform larger-scale works, such as Monteverdi’s Vespers or Schütz’s so-called Swan Song (Psalms 119 & 110 and German Magnificat). Moreover, Voces Suaves has maintained long-standing collaborations with Jörg-Andreas Bötticher and Johannes Strobl.
Since 2015 various recordings by Voces Suaves have been released on the claves records, Ambronay éditions, Arcana (Outhere Music), and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi labels, and been honored with international prizes (including the Diapason découverte).
