Throughout his artistic career the Umbrian violinist Enrico Gatti, a pupil of Chiara Banchini and Sigiswald Kuijken, has performed all over Europe, Canada, the United States, South America, Japan and Australia.
He has worked with La Petite Bande, Ensemble 415, Concerto Palatino, Hespèrion XX and La Real Cámara, among other groups, as first violinist with Les Arts Florissants, Les Talens Lyriques, Taverner Players and The King’s Consort, as well as with conductors such as Gustav Leonhardt and Ton Koopman.
Despite an impressive track record of Italian violin music, one that covers major figures like Corelli, Veracini and Tartini (with discs released on a variety of labels and frequently the recipients of important awards), Enrico Gatti has only recently turned to the question of recording Vivaldi, selecting the Sonatas of both the op. 1 and 2 collections with which to break a 20 year recording “silence” on the subject of the Red Priest. Gatti is the director of the Ensemble Aurora, which he founded in Italy in 1986, and has recorded the Vivaldi Trio Sonatas (playing on a 1652 Nicola Amati instrument) with this group for Glossa as well as Alessandro Stradella’s oratorio La Susanna.
An important element in Enrico Gatti’s working life lies in the field of education and lecturing and he teaches the Baroque violin at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and in Novara. His teaching skills have been solicited by institutions including the conservatories of Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Amsterdam and Utrecht, the Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, the University of British Columbia, the Universidad de Salamanca and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena. He has also taught at courses in Urbino, Erice, Venice, Lanciano, Barbaste, Spa and Béjar.
The spirit of improvisation – when addressing music from the Baroque era – is as important for a long-established artist on Glossa, such as violinist Enrico Gatti, as it is for new arrivals Fahmi Alqhai, Josetxu Obregón and Enrike Solinís. Gatti, who has recorded music by Vivaldi and Bach for the label with his Ensemble Aurora (as well as joining Emilio Moreno in music from the Age of Enlightenment from Spain), has a distinct predilection for Italian repertory from the 17th century (including music by his beloved Corelli). His new disc, with the suggestive title, Mille consigli, explores the early part of that century – with sonatas, toccatas, chiaconas and canzonas by the likes of Castello, Fontana, Bertoli, Legrenzi, Merula, Uccellini. The choice of repertory allows Gatti’s violin to take flight and his artistry and experience add a crucial poetic, vocal element which brings the music fully alive for the 21st century. [read more...]
Despite an impressive track record of Italian violin music, one that covers major figures like Corelli, Veracini and Tartini, Enrico Gatti has only recently turned to the question of recording Vivaldi.
This Umbrian is a keen defender of Italian cultural values and their modern representation aided by active research. So he has somewhat been repelled by recent ‘fast and furious’ trends in the playing of Vivaldi – his booklet essay for this new Glossa recording gives further vent to his feelings on this subject – and it is only now that he as broken a 20 year recording ‘silence’ on the subject of the Red Priest. [read more...]