Modo Antiquo is an Italian instrumental ensemble dedicated to the performance of Baroque, Renaissance, and Medieval music. It was founded in 1984 by Federico Maria Sardelli. Twice nominated for a Grammy award, the ensemble has an extensive discography, primarily on the Naïve, Brilliant Classics, and Tactus labels and have given the first performances in modern times of several works by Vivaldi. Modo Antiquo's larger ensemble is its Baroque orchestra led by Sardelli. It also has a smaller ensemble devoted to Medieval and Renaissance music led by Bettina Hoffmann.
History and repertoire.
Modo Antiquo was founded in 1984 by the musicologist and flautist Federico Maria Sardelli and initially focused on Medieval and Renaissance music. The Baroque orchestra began in 1987, the 300th anniversary of Jean-Baptiste Lully's death, when Sardelli organised a concert in Livorno which gave the first Italian performance in modern times of Lully's "Ballet des Saisons". The 25-piece orchestra played on a boat as it sailed around the city's canals. Since that time the orchestra has concentrated on the live performance and recording of music by Baroque composers, and particularly that of Vivaldi.
They received two Grammy nominations, the first in 1996 for Vivaldi's "Concerti Per Molti Istromenti" and the second in 1999 for Corelli's "Twelve concerti grossi", Op. 6, both on the Tactus label. The orchestra later made multiple recordings for the "Vivaldi Edition", a project by Naïve Records to record the entire collection of Vivaldi autograph scores preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin. Modo Antiquo's recordings in this series include "Arie d'Opera", previously unrecorded arias from Vivaldi's personal collection (2005); "Violin concertos", Vol. II, six concertos for virtuoso violin collectively known as "di sfida" (2007); the opera "Atenaide" (2007); "New Discoveries", Vols. I and II, recently authenticated pieces from the Turin collection (2009, 2012); and the opera "Orlando furioso" (2012).
The Medieval ensemble of Modo Antiquo consists of 4 to 5 players, some of whom also play in the Baroque orchestra. It is led by Sardelli's wife, the musicologist and viola da gambist Bettina Hoffmann. They have a number of recordings on the Brilliant Classics label and also perform in concert using modern copies of Medieval and Renaissance instruments. In 2011, they toured Italy with their performance of songs set to "Confessio Goliae" by the unidentified Goliard known as only as Archipoeta. Only the texts were thought to have survived, but Hoffmann and scholars at the University of Cologne were able to trace and reconstruct the original musical notation.
References.
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