Giuliano Carmignola

“A perfect partnership in glorious works that show the poetic side of the Vivaldi” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008

“…sparkling playing with slow movements, in particular those belonging to RV 516 and RV 509 yielding an air of pure enchantment.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 ****

“In Carmignola, [Abbado] has an ideal soloist, prepared to rethink these delightful works, as well as the great Sinfonia Concertante, with violin and viola solos in the light of scholarly research and reappraisal. The results are little short of revelatory, especially in the concertos’ and Sinfonia’s fast outer movements. They scamper along at Carmignola’s vivacious tempi and provoke dazzling feats of virtuosity from the orchestral accompaniments, which sometimes sound polite. The soloist’s tone is bright and sweet (but never saccharine), and Abbado’s Bolognese band is already clearly a crack ensemble — the principal viola, Danusha Waskiewicz, brings lustrous tone and bravura to the Sinfonia’s second solo part, and it is a long time since I have heard such exhilarating, devil-may-care playing in the famous “Turkish” Rondo of the A major concerto. A marvellous set.” Sunday Times, 20th July 2008 ****

“Carmignola, renowned for his Baroque, is a clean interpreter of Mozart's violin concertos, his sweet-sounding strings flitting in well-matched dialogue with the attentive period detailing of Abbado's young ensemble.” The Times, 19th July 2008 ****

“[The conducting is] almost miraculous, with its exuberant, lively tempi, perfectly balanced lighter-than-air textures, and exquisite attention to the smallest details of phrasing and articulation. The sense of the players listening as intently to each other as they do to following Abbado's directions is obvious in every bar... There are a few moments in the violin concertos, and especially in the Sinfonia Concertante, when the music could benefit from a little more room to breathe, though Abbado and his soloists do show that the slow movement of the Sinfonia doesn't need to be taken as an indulgent adagio to weave its magical spell.” The Guardian, 18th July 2008 ****

“Complete technical fluidity, at the service of a lively musical imagination, backed up by some superbly shaped orchestral playing under Abbado.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2008 *****

“Mozart-conducting and interpretation are in the realms of greatness.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008

“An immensely novel sound . . . able to evoke the rough — often abrasive — sounds of early Italian music yet also deliver an incredible sweetness of tone . . . Carmignola's gestures called to mind both the wild spontaneity of a Hirschfeld caricature and the sleek elegance of a Giacometti sculpture . . .” LA Times, 2004