Under Principal Conductor Antonio Pappano, the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, returned to the BBC Proms for a concert performance of Rossini’s epic opera Guillaume Tell.
2011 is the the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy so fitting that this great Italian orchestra and chorus of nearly 200 performers, joined by a stellar cast of twelve solo singers, performs Rossini’s 39th and final opera at the BBC Proms. This special concert followed three sold-out performances of the four-act opera in Rome’s Sala Santa Cecilia in October 2010.
“Anyone who still believes that the words ‘Italian orchestra’ and ‘technical precision’ do not belong in the same sentence should have heard the performance. The orchestra is fleet and wonderfully together, with crunch, buoyancy, a keen sense of collective phrasing and its own very distinctive sounds.”
Financial Times
16 July 2011
Royal Albert Hall, London
Intermusica brings Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia to Amsterdam and Paris for debut performances in both the Het Concertgebouw and the Salle Pleyel. Led by their Music Director Antonio Pappano, the Orchestra performed two programmes consisting of works by Shostakovich, Bartók, Mendelssohn and Rossini.
1 March 2009
Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
2 March 2009
Salle Pleyel, Paris
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma made their first Proms appearance under the baton of Antonio Pappano in mid July. The Orchestra perform Berio's Sinfonia with The Swingle Singers, for whom the piece was originally commissioned by the BBC Proms and first performed in 1969, and Rossini's Stabat Mater with their own chorus. The extraordinary combination of Berio and Rossini was a special wish of Pappano, and was warmly received by all the critics.
"I shall count myself fortunate if I hear another choral work this summer that has been so lovingly phrased or polished, or performed with such immaculate taste...Pappano somehow made it sound not just sincere, but noble and uplifting too. His orchestra played with terrific vitality - and his 90-strong chorus blew me away with their sonority, alertness and massive unanimity."
Times
"This performance was a triumph. Conductor Antonio Pappano....seized the piece with a real opera conductor's passion....and the orchestra made the score seem even more lustrous than usual."
Telegraph
"The Orchestra playing...was faultless....The real heroes, however, were the Academy's Chorus, one of the world's great choirs: their singing was astonishing in its power, Flexibility and richness of tone."
Guardian
"This was a performance with an epic sweep; perhaps only Pappano could make such a perfect match between Berio and Rossini."
Evening Standard
16 July 2007
Royal Albert Hall, London