Federico Maria Sardelli

Perhaps best known as a virtuoso flutist and for his conducting activities with his early music ensemble <a href="spotify:artist:0zFQ4JRsGW89iGVNH8x86e">Modo Antiquo</a>, Federico Maria Sardelli is also a composer of over 280 works, a painter, an author, and a musicologist. In the latter realm, he is noted for cataloging the works of <a href="spotify:artist:2QOIawHpSlOwXDvSqQ9YJR">Antonio Vivaldi</a>, including rediscovering lost manuscripts, conducting the world modern premieres of several works, and authoring critical editions of several works by the Italian master. In 2024, Sardelli led <a href="spotify:artist:0zFQ4JRsGW89iGVNH8x86e">Modo Antiquo Orchestra Barocca</a> on the world-premiere recording of Pietro Auletta's opera L'Orazio.

Sardelli was born on August 15, 1963, in Livorno, Italy. His father was artist Marc Sardelli. Federico Maria began his musical journey as a flutist, though he studied philosophy at the Università di Pisa. In 1984, he founded <a href="spotify:artist:0zFQ4JRsGW89iGVNH8x86e">Modo Antiquo</a> as a Medieval and Renaissance ensemble, serving as director and flutist. Sardelli expanded the ensemble to a 25-piece Baroque orchestra in 1987, with both ensembles under the <a href="spotify:artist:0zFQ4JRsGW89iGVNH8x86e">Modo Antiquo</a> name, transferring directorship of the Medieval and Renaissance ensemble to his wife, gambist Bettina Hoffmann. The Baroque orchestra was launched for a Sardelli-coordinated celebratory concert in Livorno for the 300th anniversary of <a href="spotify:artist:19v0Cnq5D4SKom8SVlXhkw">Jean-Baptiste Lully</a>'s death. The concert featured the orchestra performing the modern revival of <a href="spotify:artist:19v0Cnq5D4SKom8SVlXhkw">Lully</a>'s Ballet des Saisons on a boat as it sailed the canals of the city. Sardelli and <a href="spotify:artist:0zFQ4JRsGW89iGVNH8x86e">Modo Antiquo</a> began appearing internationally at major concert halls and festivals, including Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Festival Handel in Halle, Germany, and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow. Sardelli also began to receive guest conducting opportunities with groups such as the <a href="spotify:artist:0SlNRZ8zBLAgyB1lsoYxAa">Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra</a> and the <a href="spotify:artist:0YfVUjHFL0QWCSFRzliCDk">Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra</a>, among others.

Sardelli and <a href="spotify:artist:0zFQ4JRsGW89iGVNH8x86e">Modo Antiquo</a> made their recording debut in 1992 with the album Ghirardello da Firenze: Madrigali, Cacce, Ballate on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Nuova+Era%22">Nuova Era</a> label (reissued in 2010). Much of Sardelli's recording activities have focused on the music of <a href="spotify:artist:2QOIawHpSlOwXDvSqQ9YJR">Vivaldi</a>, including 1996's Vivaldi: Concerti per molti istromenti, which earned a Grammy nomination. He received a second nomination for the 1999 recording of Arcangelo Corelli's Concerto Grossi, Op. 6, Nos. 7-12, which Sardelli reconstructed. The turn of the century saw Sardelli become involved with Venice's Instituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, where he researched the composer and authored several essays, such as 2001's La Musica per flauto di Antonio Vivaldi. With that organization, he has also edited, recorded, and given the modern premieres of several <a href="spotify:artist:2QOIawHpSlOwXDvSqQ9YJR">Vivaldi</a> works, including the opera Motezuma, which was reconstructed after it was rediscovered in fragments upon its return to the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin.

In 2007, Sardelli was the principal conductor of the Handel Festival and took over the task of continuing to catalog <a href="spotify:artist:2QOIawHpSlOwXDvSqQ9YJR">Vivaldi</a>'s music by its Ryom Verzeichnis (RV) numbers. In that role, Sardelli and Francisco Javier Lupiáñez Ruiz added the earliest-known work to the catalog, Trio Sonata, RV 820, in 2014. The following year, he published the book L'affare Vivaldi, which concerned the composer's manuscript disappearance. Sardelli continued a steady recording pace, often issuing audio and video releases of live performances. Adding to his ventures, he appeared as the conductor in Paolo Virzì's 2022 film Siccità; he is also a cartoonist and sculptor. In 2023, Sardelli led the modern revival of Pietro Auletta's L'Orazio at the Valle d'Itria Festival, and a recording from that production was issued in 2024. ~ Keith Finke, Rovi