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About I Solisti Italiani
Hometown
Rome, Italy
Formed
1979
Genre
Classical
I Solisti Italiani was a chamber string orchestra consisting of about 12 players, known particularly for its spirited readings of works from the Baroque and Classical periods. The group performed and recorded much Vivaldi and devoted nearly as much effort to the works of Handel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Rossini. They were strongly identified with the music of the 20th century as well, having had particular success with a recording of film score excerpts by Walton, Shostakovich, Herrmann, Morricone, and other notables in the genre.
I Solisti Italiani began, like many instrumental ensembles, as an offshoot of a larger one. The popular chamber orchestra I Virtuosi di Roma disbanded in 1979 upon the death of its leader of three decades, Renato Fasano. The "disbanding" process was more of a metamorphosis, for the players split into two groups, one forming I Nuovi Virtuosi di Roma and the other becoming I Solisti Italiani. The latter had nearly immediate success, scoring numerous triumphs on the world's concert stages and quickly drawing comparisons with its defunct parent group. I Solisti Italiani was remarkable for performing without a conductor.
I Solisti Italiani gave its New York debut in 1986 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, drawing high praise from The New York Times in a program of Vivaldi, Mozart, Rossini, Bartók, and Britten. Around this time, I Solisti Italiani's earliest recordings were also scoring critical successes. Among them was the 1986 Denon release of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which, because of its popularity, gained a second life in a rerelease in 1993.
The late 1980s and early 1990s were I Solisti Italiani's busiest time in the recording studio, as it turned out a spate of well-received discs, all on Denon, and mostly in its bread-and-butter repertory: there were several albums of music by Vivaldi, and single issues by Rossini, Corelli, and Mendelssohn, as well as others. Perhaps the group's most popular album from this period was the 1996 release of film music that contained excerpts from Herrmann's Psycho, Walton's Henry V, a trio of Shostakovich scores -- Hamlet, The Gadfly, and Five Days and Five Nights -- and several others. I Solisti Italiani disbanded in 2000. ~ Robert Cummings
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