Antonio Cesti composed the opera »Il pomo d’oro« for the wedding celebrations of Emperor Leopold and Margarita Teresa of Spain in Vienna in 1666. It was staged in a manner so spectacular and lavish it knew no rival. The ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro feel inspired by the cultural splendour of that time and have been performing dynamic, authentic interpretations of operas and instrumental works since 2012.
The musicians are well known specialists and are among the top in their field for historically informed performance. The ensemble have worked with conductors Riccardo Minasi, Stefano Montanari, George Petrou, Enrico Onofri and Francesco Corti. Concertmaster Zefira Valova also leads the orchestra in concerts and recordings. Maxim Emelyanychev became the orchestra’s chief conductor in 2016.
The ensemble is particularly known and sought-after for their work with singers, whether it be solo recitals or entire opera performances and recordings.
Most recently, Il Pomo d’Oro toured the world with Joyce DiDonato’s programme »Eden« amongst others, including in the Glocke in Bremen in 2023. The project, which was completed in September 2024, won numerous awards, including a Grammy nomination, a Gramophone Award, a Choc de Classica and an Opus Klassik prize.
In 2022, Il Pomo d’Oro started a long-term project to record Mozart symphonies and a selection of solo concertos under the baton of Maxim Emelyanychev. The first album »The Beginning and the End« was released at the start of 2023 by Aparté and includes Mozart’s first and last symphony as well as piano concerto No 23 with Maxim Emelyanychev at the piano.
A number of albums was released in the 2023-24 season, including Wagner’s »Wesendonck Lieder« with Joyce DiDonato and Maxim Emelyanychev, »Al-Bunduqiyya – The Lost Concerto« with Giovanni Sollima and Federico Guglielmo, the second album of the Mozart project with Emelyanychev and Ivan Podyomov, as well as »Beyond« with Jakub Józef Orliński, which won the renowned Fryderyk award as early music album of the year, the 2023 Caecilia Award and the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award.
In the 2024-25 season, the orchestra continues to work with exceptional musicians and presents amongst others concert opera productions of Handel’s »Alcina« and »Jephtha« as well as scenic productions of Vivaldi’s »Orlando Furioso« and Pergolesi’s »Stabat Mater«.
Il Pomo d’Oro is an official ambassador of El Sistema Greece, a humanitarian project that offers free music lessons to children in Greek refugee camps.