La Serenissima

Early-music specialists La Serenissima are Longborough’s guest players for L'Orfeo in 2023. We caught up with founder Adrian Chandler on their approach to performance, and their surprising discoveries.

What does it mean to be a period instrument orchestra?

La Serenissima chooses to perform using period instruments because these are the instruments that would have been known to our composers. Over the centuries, instruments have adapted with time, some extensively so. One of the most noted differences between a ‘period’ violin and a modern violin is the use of gut strings, made from either sheep’s or cow’s intestines, and although the lowest string may appear to be made of metal, it still has an inner core of gut. Gut strings were commonly used until the 1960s, so a period performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (1913) would be played using gut strings.

Wind instruments too have undergone changes over the centuries; brass instruments now have larger bells than hitherto, and modern trumpets and horns use a valve-system enabling them to play notes that were unobtainable in the C17 and C18. Oboes, flutes, clarinets and bassoons possessed many fewer keys than they do now; these have been gradually added over the years in order to make the instruments easier to play.

To illustrate a point, if one were to perform a baroque violin concerto with the string section of a symphony orchestra, there would probably be many places where the solo violin was drowned out by the accompaniment. However, if one were to string the instruments in gut and use a smaller orchestra (of a size familiar to the composer), one would find that most of these problems would disappear.

Other difficulties that beset the modern musician include the difficulty of choosing the correct tempo. The metronome wasn’t invented until the nineteenth century although there had been earlier attempts at calibrating musical tempo; a composer’s music was therefore subject to the whims of the performer. To communicate a better understanding of tempo, some composers tried to illustrate tempi by means of heartbeat, walking, breathing or vegetable chopping (!) but the most trusted means of conveying a tempo were through the use of time signatures and tempo markings.

Many musicians today have been brought up using the famous red book titled Rudiments and Theory of Music which gives very simplified (yet useful) English translations of Italian, German and French musical terminology. In reality, these can be far from practical when composers write instructions such as Allegro Andante (Handel) or Allegro e Presto (Vivaldi). One quickly comes to realise that there is a huge amount of subtlety and nuance that can be communicated by a composer, particularly when it comes to tempo; despite being taught that Presto is the fastest of the musical tempi, it is possible that a composer uses this term to convey a feeling or affect, rather than a musical tempo.

La Serenissima works from its own performing editions. What does this mean and how much research goes into these? 

When I started La Serenissima back in 1994, most of the repertoire performed during the ensemble’s infancy was by Antonio Vivaldi. It was hard finding performing editions of Vivaldi’s lesser-known works and often we were at the mercy of music arriving from Italy which could take months. On one occasion, a set of parts arrived the day before the concert, an experience which led me to take matters into my own hands thereafter.

These days I obtain a copy of a contemporary print or manuscript from which I make my own edition. For manuscripts, it is better if they are ‘autograph’ (i.e. in the hand of the composer), but if no autograph exists, I look at whatever sources are available to me. It is not uncommon for works to survive in single sources; even prints sometimes survive in only a handful of copies (unless the collection was incredibly popular). 

Given the errors often contained within these sources (even in autograph ‘fair’ copies), the opportunity to work out the composer’s intentions is both interesting and educational; the process can also help us arrive at an interpretation that best serves the music.

You describe unearthing extraordinary works by neglected composers. Over your 25+ years of performance, what is your most surprising discovery?

Although not my personal ‘discoveries’, the volume and quality of Vivaldi’s manuscripts that I have studied over the years have really developed my musical instincts. However, given Vivaldi’s popularity, it is rare for us to be the first to break new ground with his output. 

In recent years, we have started exploring some of Vivaldi’s lesser-known contemporaries such as Dall’Abaco, Matteis the Younger and Zavateri. Perhaps the most exciting of this group of composers is Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello, a composer whose music is rarely heard, yet who composed some superlative music. We gave the UK premiere of his sole opera Tisbe in 2018; we are currently in the midst of recording his complete Opus 1 (volume one will be released this autumn); and we are also working our way through his orchestral suites (he was about the only Italian to write such works). Brescianello is not just a good composer, he is a great composer. The character contained within his compositions is remarkable and he switches with ease between a predominantly Italianate style, to one that is pan-European. We think there is much more to come from this composer – watch this space!

Born on Merseyside in 1974, Adrian Chandler is recognised internationally as a leading interpreter of Italian baroque music with an ‘avantgarde approach that would have awed Hendrix’ (The Guardian). His ‘electrifying playing’ and ‘real richness of sound’ (Classical Music) have captivated listeners for over 25 years. Adrian founded La Serenissima in 1994, whilst a student of Rodney Friend at the Royal College of Music, channelling his love affair with Vivaldi into a lifetime’s mission. 

This article first appeared in Longborough's 2021 souvenir programme book.