Il Giardino Armonico
Acting
Biography
Il Giardino Armonico ("The Garden of Harmony") is an Italian ensemble well noted for its practice of Historically Informed Performance and founded in Milan in 1985 by Luca Pianca and Giovanni Antonini, primarily to play 17th- and 18th-century music on period instruments.
Known For

“Morning,” “Noon,” “Evening”: a day set to music by Joseph Haydn. Italian conductor Giovanni Antonini and his ensemble Il Giardino Armonico perform the Austrian composer’s symphonic trilogy in the sumptuous Haydn Hall of the Esterházy Palace in Austria, the very place where it was first performed. More than 250 years later, a true alchemy unfolds in this historic setting between the musicians and the three works.
Haydn: symphonies “The Hours of the Day” Il Giardino Armonico at the Esterházy Palace

"I didn't look for the mandolin: it found me." By chance, as a child, Avi Avital discovered a passion for this modest stringed instrument, traditionally associated with popular music and amateur performances. His first teacher, a violinist by profession, inspired him to defy the limits of genre and learn to play classical music. The Israeli musician has now become the mandolin's greatest ambassador, performing sensitive arrangements of baroque pieces the world over.