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The Italian conductor, composer, musicologist and music educator, Claudio Scimone, studied conducting with Carlo Zecchi, Dimitri Mitropoulos and Franco Ferrara. He also studied early music and interpretation.
Claudio Scimone established an international reputation as a conductor, as well as a composer. He revived many Baroque and Renaissance works. In 1959 he formed the chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti in Padua and remained associated with it for decades and with which most of his recordings were made. I Solisti Veneti quickly achieved a reputation for excellence, and in 1975, Scimone took the orchestra for its first appearance at the annual Salzburg Festival in Austria, only to be invited back every year. He also led the orchestra on several world tours, appearing in 60 countries. Although the orchestra specializes in early music, Scimone was also instrumental in commissioning works by Cristobal Halffter, Franco Donatoni, Marius Constant, and Sylvanno Bussotti, among others. He also served as Artistic Director of the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto from 1966 to 1983.
Meanwhile, Claudio Scimone carried on an additional career as one of the most respected musicologists researching Italian music from the end of the Renaissance through Rossini. He prepared and edited the first modern editions of Tartini's then practically forgotten violin concertos and sonatas and has prepared editions of many Antonio Vivaldi operas, and opened the world to discover the importance of A. Vivaldi's theatrical works,. One of his most sensational modern premieres was his recording of A. Vivaldi's Orlando furioso in 1977, with Marilyn Horne and Victoria de Los Angeles, and his live performance of it in 1979 at the Teatro Filharmonico in Verona. He prepared a critical edition of Rossini's Maometto secondo and made first recordings or premiere modern performances of several Rossini operas. In the reborn Fenice he directed the first modern revival of the Venetian version of Maometto secondo. He also gave the modern premieres of Moses in Egypt and Oedipus at Colonus by Rossini, and The Last Judgement by Salieri. With the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, he conducted the first recording of Muzio Clementi’s Symphonies. He recorded for the Erato label, among others, and has more than 250 performances recorded under his baton.
In addition to concerts with I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone conducted at Covent Garden, the Houston Grand Opera, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Verona Arena. At the last-named of those, in 1996 he performed the long-forgotten opera Les Danaïdes by Antonio Salieri. He also conducted such leading orchestras as the O.R.T.F. Philharmonic; Melbourne Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Philharmonia Orchestra of London; Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra; and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London. Principal Conductor. He was Principal Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal between 1979 and 1986, and was nominated in 1987 its Honorary Conductor, a title he held until his death in 2018. He taught at the Venice Conservatory (1961-1967) and the Verona Conservatory (1967-1974); then was a teacher and director of the Padua Conservatory (1974-1983). In addition to numerous articles for various music journals, he was the author of an acclaimed treatise on performing practice, Segno, Significato, Interpretazione.
Claudio Scimone was awarded the title of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (the highest ranking honour of the Republic). He received the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros, a Grammy Award, and the Montreux World Disc Prize. He was also awarded an honorary law degree from the University of Padua. |
