GiovanniAntonini

/
  • Conductor
Giovanni Antonini
Giovanni Antonini

About Giovanni

Conductor: Il Giardino Armonico

Giovanni Antonini is renowned for his refined and innovative interpretations of Baroque & Classical repertoire. He is a regular guest with Berliner Philharmoniker, Concertgebouworkest, Tonhalle Orchester, Mozarteum Orchester, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, London Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
His opera productions have included Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto and Bellini’s Norma with Cecilia Bartoli at Salzburg Festival. In 2018 he conducted Orlando at Theater an der Wien and returned to Opernhaus Zürich for Idomeneo. In 2019 he conducted Guilio Cesare for La Scala, returning there in 2021 for Così fan tutte and Orontea in 2024

In the 2025/26 season, he conducts Le Nozze di Figaro at Liceu Barcelona and Pugnani’s Werther with Mozarteumorchester. He works with Luzerner SInfonieorchester, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and returns to Bamberg Symphoniker and for two projects with the Czech Philharmonic alongside the Czech Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. Il Giardino Armonico are Ensemble in Residence at Wigmore Hall London with regular appearances throughout the season.

He is Artistic Director of the Haydn2032 project, recording and performing with Il Giardino Armonico and Kammerorchester Basel the complete symphonies of Haydn by the time of the 300th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The first fifteen volumes have been released on the Alpha Classics label with two further volumes planned every year.

Giovanni is based in Milan

Download programme biography   

Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Melanie Moult

Melanie Moult

Associate Director

For contracts, logistics and press:

Fiona Russell

Fiona Russell

Senior Assistant Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt (excl. Spain)

Partner management:
Spain - Duetto Management

Season Highlights

Sep 2025
Helsinki Music Centre
Haydn: Scena de Berenice Mozart: Incidental music from Thamos, König von Egypt Haydn: Miseri noi! Misera patria! Beethoven: Ah! Perfido Haydn: Symphony no. 45 Julia Lezhneva (soprano) Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Oct 2025
The Glasshouse Gateshead
Haydn: Symphony no. 85 Haydn: Keyboard Concerto in D no. 11 Kraus: Olympie Overture Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D Kristian Bezuidehout (piano) Royal Northern Sinfonia
Dec 2025
Grosser Saal, Mozarteum Salzburg
Pugnani: Werther Sabin Tambrea ( actor) Mozarteumorchester
Jan 2026
Rudolfinium Prague
Beethoven: Triple Concerto Vivaldi: Concerto for Recorder "il cardellino" Haydn: Symphony no. 54 in G Jan Fiser (violin) Vacla Petre (cello) Karolina Pancernaite ( piano_ Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Mar 2026
KKL Luzern
Vivaldi: Sinfonia Olimpiade Vivaldi: Gelido in ogni vene Vivaldi: Gelosia Mozart: Overture from Idomeneo Mozart: Non piu di fiori Mozart: Symphony no. 38 Fatma Said (soprano) Luzerner Sinfonieorchester
Mar 2026
Konserthus Oslo
Gluck: Suite from Don Juan Viotti: Violin Concerto in Dm Dmitry Smirnov (violin) Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

News

Press

  • Haydn 2032 Vol 13 " Hornsignal"

    Recording
    Feb 2023
    • Brought exuberantly to life by Il Giardino Armonico, directed by Giovanni Antonini...There is a delight in revealing the detail and plenty of lingering over the slower beauties of the writing. Fizz and energy never far away thought and it's some of the most exhilarating Haydn around at the moment. BBC Radio 3 Record Review

      • BBC Radio 3 Record Review
      • 10 February 2023
    • Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico dispatch it [Symphony no. 48] with as much excitement as any version I’ve heard, and find in it a deal more light and shade than most other recordings...Vol 13 is another undoubted triumph.

      • Gramophone Magazine
      • 01 January 2023
  • Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin

    Konzerthaus Berlin
    Dec 2021
    • Beethoven's Lautmalereien werden dabei nicht zu Effekten verkürzt. Noch das Gewitter bleibt eingebettet in einen organischen, stetigen Puls, ein mal expressives, mal fein nuanciertes Landschaftspanorama. Schönheit und Schock, die Macht der Liebe, die Zerstörungsgefahr... ein utopischer Abend

  • Haydn 2032 Vol 10

    Recording
    Jul 2021
    • The music is delightful anyway, particularly in Symphony No 6, “Le Matin”. But everything gains an extra kick and lilt in these airily magnificent performances from Antonini’s ensemble Il Giardino Armonico. The playing is weighted to perfection: light and rhythmically bouncy without being dainty or manic.

  • Chicago Symphony

    Chicago Symphony Center
    Jun 2018
    • Uncommonly sensitive to fine degrees of dynamics throughout the concert, Antonini crouched low on the podium to draw exquisite pianissimos from the orchestra in the quieter moments of the Drum Roll... Haydn’s music took on renewed character and charm in this intimate perspective. I, for one, may never want to go back to hearing big-orchestra Haydn again.

  • Haydn 2032 Vol 5

    Recording
    Jan 2018
    • The suave No. 81 comes off particularly well, while No. 80, one of Haydn's most eccentric creations, is played straight and comes of all the more witty for it.... This is another winning entry into Antonini's Haydn discography... in which direction will this compelling and tantalising slow-burn series turn next?

      • Gramophone Magazine
      • 08 January 2018
  • Il Giardino Armonico

    Barbican Centre London
    May 2014
    • From many points of view, Antonini and his historically informed ensemble matched her approach to a nicety; their playing offered character without excess, and their tone substance without heaviness. All their accompaniments were vividly sketched, though they really came into their own in two concerti grossi by Handel and another by his London-based Italian colleague, Francesco Geminiani.

  • Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig

    Gewandhaus Leipzig
    Mar 2011
    • The title La Passione [Symphony in F minor /Haydn] was taken literally by the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Giovanni Antonini: Various forms of passion were certainly experienced by the audience….In the presto one last gasp: Giovanni Antonini energetically built up the storm. He coaxed the orchestra’s threatening swelling tremolos, then slowed down again in the melancholy triumphs in the fight against the awesome drama.

      • Leipziger Volkszeitung
      • 21 March 2011