 Au début du XVIIIe siècle, Venise comptait 4 "Ospedali", qui, entre autres fonctions, prenaient en charge les nouveau-nés abandonnés et les orphelins. Ceux-ci, confiés à des nurses, étaient ensuite éduqués dans ces institutions. L'"Ospedale della Pieta" était réservé aux filles. Celles qui faisaient montre de talents musicaux étaient orientées vers la pratique du chant ou des instruments. Les plus douées recevaient les leçons de musiciens et compositeurs de renom, tels Vivaldi, qui constitua une phalange exceptionnelle de chanteuses et de musiciennes chargées d'accompagner sans être vues le service divin et de donner des concerts profanes. Parmi les pensionnaires, désignées par leur « spécialité », Vivaldi avait notamment distingué Anna Maria dal Violin, virtuose hors pair pour laquelle il composa vingt-cinq concertos. L'originalité de cette version tient au fait que les œuvres du prêtre roux sont en partie réalisés ou reconstruits d'après le cahier personnel d’Anna Maria, qui offre un aperçu inestimable sur l'ornementation dont elle agrémentait ces pièces et contient même des audaces harmoniques absentes dans d'autres copies, et difficilement imputables à des erreurs de transcription. Plus que la musique d'une époque, c'est l'usage qui en est fait, l'exécution qui en est donnée, son ancrage dans un contexte et une pratique sociale bien précis qui sont approchés ici. Les recherches musicologiques effectuées ont amené à étoffer la trame sonore, par adjonction aux cordes d'instruments à vents divers — flûtes, basson, hautbois et chalumeaux — coutume des plus répandues à l'Ospedale. Cet apport semble, à l'écoute, appelé et comme nécessité par la structure des passages concernés. Albinoni et Galuppi élargissent la perspective. Avant tout, c'est à une véritable redécouverte de Vivaldi que nous convie le Concerto Köln. L'œuvre est revivifiée, revêt une vigueur, un allant, un éclat, une ampleur et des couleurs inouïes, irrésistibles. Jeu brillant, enlevé, aérien, incisif. Contrastes magnifiquement rendus et splendide performance du violon solo. Un enregistrement incontournable. (Bertrand Abraham) Her life reads like the classic Baroque success story: brought up motherless in a Venetian orphanage, maturing into an “unparalleled violin virtuosa”, treated as an equal by Antonio Vivaldi: Anna Maria dal Violin. Midori Seiler and Concerto Köln depict the life of this exceptional woman in La Venezia di Anna Maria. All her life long, Anna Maria (born 1696, died 1782) lived and worked in the Ospedale della Pietà. The Venetian orphanage for girls did more than just offer a home and a refuge to girls abandoned by their mothers. It was a school, a musical conservatory and a tourist attraction at the same time, a flourishing part of the city-state’s economy in which Anna Maria rapidly rose to stardom. Defying conventional expectations, the orphanage provided the springboard and proved the perfect setting for a career otherwise denied a female orphan in 18th-century Italy. As maestro di concerto of the Ospedale, Antonio Vivaldi took Anna Maria under his wing. Starting out as her mentor and teacher, he eventually wrote over two dozen Concerti per Anna Maria. She for her part brilliantly mastered the violin and a host of other instruments, and was praised as the “veritable embodiment of all that is good and beautiful”, as a creature “ascending into Paradise”. Before long everyone was demanding to hear her and it is largely thanks to her that Vivaldi’s instrumental concertos blossomed as they did. Baroque specialist Midori Seiler and her congenial partner Concerto Köln offer a virtuoso portrayal of this artistic teamwork between Anna Maria and Vivaldi. Anna Maria noted in her “performance book” a large number of the concertos she played in the Chiesa dell’Ospedale. They have luckily survived and so these 160 sheets of music bear her handwriting in more senses than one. We see not only the notes as she transcribed them, but her own ornaments. And they shed light on how she and her contemporaries played the violin, opening a musical door from the present day into the Venice of nearly three centuries ago. This album is the record of a fruitful collaboration: Antonio Vivaldi and Anna Maria – Midori Seiler and Concerto Köln – Midori Seiler and Anna Maria. As an equally virtuosic female violinist, Midori Seiler is the ideal candidate to challenge and emulate her Baroque predecessor. As a member of Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik, Seiler was a part of the ensemble’s international breakthrough, from 2005 to 2014 directing from the leader’s desk. After a period as Professor at the Salzburg Mozarteum University she returned to Germany in 2017 as Professor at the Franz Liszt College of Music in Weimar. Holder of the Saxon Mozart Prize, she has enjoyed a long partnership with Concerto Köln. The orchestra has been one of the leading ensembles in the field of historical performance practice for more than 30 years, and as EU Cultural Ambassador 2012 is one of North Rhine-Westphalia’s claims to musical fame. Four of the Concerti per Anna Maria have been selected for this album, together with one concerto each by Vivaldi’s contemporaries Galuppi and Albinoni. On La Venezia di Anna Maria, exceptional readings by Midori Seiler and Concerto Köln shed unique light on Venice as a flourishing centre of the arts at the height of its musical prowess.
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