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La Nuova Musica (= LNM) was founded by its artistic director David Bates in 2007 whilst in residency at Snape Maltings, with the aim of harnessing the energy that the Baroque demands of its performers as a potent tool in striving to move audiences.
The group was swiftly hailed by BBC Radio 3 as “one of the most exciting consorts in the early music field”. They received the classical nomination at the 2012 South Bank Sky Arts/The Times Breakthrough Awards. In the same year, LNM signed with harmonia mundi USA and their recordings have allowed them to reach an international audience, working with artists including Lawrence Zazzo, Robert Murray, Sophie Junker, Lucy Crowe, John Mark Ainsley and Tim Mead.
Highlights of 2015 were concerts at the inaugural ‘Sagra Musicale Umbra’ in Perugia, George Frideric Handel's Israel In Egypt in Salisbury Cathedral and a performance of Acis and Galatea at SJSS – a collaboration with Perfumier Sarah McCartney, which received a 5* review in the Times describing it as “a reading that sparkled from the giddy overture to the consoling final chorus.“. They also gave two concerts at Wigmore Hall, the first with counter-tenor Bejun Mehta, hailed by the press as “a wonderfully democratic evening of music making on the highest level”. It was followed by “the hottest ticket in town”, a concert performance of Cesti’s Orontea, where “Bates’ conducting had superb poise, and the cast was impeccable, with not a weak link anywhere” (The Guardian).
2016 saw the release of a new disc for Harmonia Mundi of François Couperin's Leçons De Ténèbres with Lucy Crowe and Elizabeth Watts and a recording of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and J.S. Bach's Cantatas BWV 54 & BWV 170 with Lucy Crowe and Tim Mead. Concerts included G.F. Handel's Berenice at the Göttingen Internationale Händel Festspiele and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Brighton International Festival with Dame Ann Murray. LNM also made their debut at Salzburger Festspiel, where the concert was hailed by the press as “a great performance, a wonderful evening”. They returned to Wigmore Hall in November with a stellar cast for Cavalli’s La Calisto and round off the year with a Christmas concert at SJSS.
2017 includes a performance of G.F. Handel's Rodrigo at Teatro Niccoline in Florence where the opera received its first performance. |
