il Pomo d’Oro
Ensemble
Elisa Citterio Violine I, Konzertmeisterin
Angelo Calvo Violine II
Giulio D’Alessio Viola
Martin Egidi Violoncello
Riccardo Coelati Kontrabass
Miguel Rincón Theorbe
Maria Shabashova Cembalo
The ensemble il Pomo d’Oro was founded in 2012. It is dedicated to authentic and dynamic interpretations of opera and instrumental works from the Baroque and Classical periods. All its musicians are leading specialists in historical performance practice. The ensemble is named after Antonio Cesti’s spectacular festival opera of 1666 for the Viennese imperial court.
il Pomo d’Oro has worked with conductors such as Riccardo Minasi, Stefano Montanari, George Petrou, Enrico Onofri and Francesco Corti. Since 2016 Maxim Emelyanychev has been its chief conductor. In 2019 Francesco Corti was named its harpsichord soloist and principal guest conductor. The concert master Zefira Valova also leads various projects. Since 2021 a vocal ensemble of the same name has been part of the group, under the directorship of Giuseppe Maletto.
il Pomo d’Oro has performed at the world’s most prestigious opera houses and concert venues and at international festivals, including the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, the MusikTheater an der Wien, the Handel Festivals in Göttingen and Halle and the Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival.
The 2025/26 season has featured tours of Monteverdi’s Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto and Bach’s St John Passion. In recital the orchestra performed works by Bach and Buxtehude with Anna Prohaska and toured Asia with Jakub Józef Orliński and the programme Beyond. Maxim Emelyanychev also conducted numerous Christmas concerts of the ensembles throughout Europe. In 2024/25 the orchestra continued its collaborations with performers including Michael Spyres, Pene Pati, Joyce DiDonato, Jakub Józef Orliński and the cellist Giovanni Sollima and toured concert performances of Handel’s Alcina and Jephtha. The choir gave performances of Gesualdo’s Sacrae Cantiones and Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine.
il Pomo d’Oro’s discography includes recordings such as Venezia with Max Emanuel Cencic, Giovincello with Edgar Moreau, Partenope with Philippe Jaroussky, In War & Peace with Joyce DiDonato (ECHO Klassik) and Theodora with Lisette Oropesa and Joyce DiDonato (BBC Music Magazine Award). In 2023 the ensemble began recording Mozart’s complete symphonies with Maxim Emelyanychev.
