The name of the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel is borrowed from Antonio Vivaldi’s violin concerto op. 9 La Cetra – the lyre. It stands for the orchestra’s core repertoire, the Italian instrumental music of the 18th century. In addition to concertante operas, works of Italian Renaissance and Baroque music and the rediscovery of unknown masterpieces, La Cetra and its associated vocal ensemble are predestined to perform great works for choir and orchestra from the Renaissance to the Classical period. La Cetra is one of the leading baroque orchestras in the world, the ensemble is internationally present as never before with performances in the most important concert halls such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie de Paris, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Konzerthaus Wien, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Theater an der Wien, Carnegie Hall New York as well as at the most renowned festivals such as Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Festival de Granada, Festival Aix-en-Provence and many more. In August 2023, La Cetra will hold a residency at the Musikfest Bremen.
La Cetra owes its dynamic development above all to the award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Andrea Marcon, under whose musical direction the orchestra has been since 2009.
On his initiative, the La Cetra Vocal Ensemble was founded in 2012. The core of the choir is made up of graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The La Cetra Vocal Ensemble supports the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra, which has made it possible to significantly expand the orchestra’s repertoire, but the vocal ensemble also realises its own projects. Because of its high musical and stylistic competence, the vocal ensemble is extremely versatile. The repertoire ranges from Gregorian chorale schola and chamber ensembles with soloists to large-scale operas and oratorios. Since its foundation, Carlos Federico Sepúlveda has been the mestro del coro of La Cetra Vocal Ensemble.
La Cetra’s explicit credo is that scholarly background work, intensive study of historical instruments, performance practice and the historical context of the works performed ultimately serve only one purpose: to make so-called early music tangible for people of today – in lively, gripping, up-to-date interpretations. For this, La Cetra was already awarded the European Early Music Prize in 2009.
La Cetra is also active as an opera orchestra; with Theater Basel, La Cetra realises a baroque opera production every season. At the Dutch National Opera, La Cetra was engaged as opera orchestra in 2019 under Andrea Marcon in the production “Juditha Triumphans”.
La Cetra has released numerous CDs with critically acclaimed recordings, most recently “Traversée” with Patricia Petibon and the three-CD recordings of Leclair’s violin concertos with Leila Schayegh, awarded the Diapason d’Or. In October 2022, “Vespro di Natale” with music by Monteverdi was released by Deutsche Grammophon and was enthusiastically received by the public and the press.
La Cetra Barockorchester & Vokalensemble Basel Andrea Marcon Direction
