La Ritirata
Dedicated to combining accurate historical awareness (through a knowledge of the instruments and aesthetics of a composer’s time) with the highest levels of artistic quality, La Ritirata is at home in Baroque musical traditions from all across Europe; Bach and Handel figure in the ensemble’s programmes as much as Italian and Spanish composers from the courtly traditions of Early Baroque who feature on the Glossa album Il Spiritillo Brando. And naturally, given the Boccherinian reference in its name, La Ritirata holds a special place in its heart for the Classical era composer from Lucca who settled in Spain: programmes of cello sonatas, string trios and other chamber works feature in the group’s repertory. The talent of La Ritirata is taking the group to concert venues and festivals all over the world; recent examples include the National Theatre of Beijing, the CNART Early Music Festival (México City), the closing ceremony of the Spanish EU presidency (Tokyo), the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele (Germany), the Museo de Bellas Artes in Santiago (Chile), the Centro Studi Boccherini (Lucca), the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, as well as all across Spain including at Musika-Música for La Folle Journée in the Palacio Euskalduna (Bilbao), the Real Alcázar (Sevilla) and the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid (in a series organized by the Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical). La Ritirata was also the only Spanish group to be selected for the first ‘Grande Audition’ of the European Early Music Network, REMA. Regular members of La Ritirata include some of the finest musicians of the younger generations of historically-informed performers, such as Tamar Lalo, Enrike Solinís and Daniel Zapico, as well as more-established players such as the renowned Hiro Kurosaki. In 2016-2017 season La Ritirata performed at Potsdam Festival, at the Gemäldegalerie Berlin (concert
broadcasted live for Germany by Deutschlandradio Kultur), at the Haydn String Quartet Festival Eszterháza (Hungary), at the Varazdin Baroque Evenings (Croatia), at the Banchetto Musicale Festival in Vilna (Lithuania), two concerts at the Festival Internacional de Arte Sacro in Bogotá (Colombia) and Algeria and offered two concerts in Bilbao, the Festival Internacional de Órgano de Getafe (Madrid), the Conjunto Monumental San Juan de Dios (Murcia), the Felicja Blumental International Music Festival in Tel-Aviv and the Kulturforum Amthof in Feldkirchen in Kärnten (Austria). In 2017/2018 season La Ritirara performed concerts in Ecuador, Festival de Música Antiga in Palma de Mallorca, Festival de Música Española in Cádiz, Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Thüringer Bachwochen in Germany, and Madrid Arte Sacro Festival. Highlight for this season was the semi-staged performance of Antonio Caldara’s opera “ Don Chisciotte in corte della Duchessa ” at the Auditorio Nacional de Música, along with soloists María Espada, Emiliano González Toro and Joao Fernandes under the stage direction of Ignacio García in November 2017.
In 2018 La Ritirata celebrated its 10th anniversary with the release of its 10th CD “ Neapolitan Concertos for various instruments ” [Glossa] and with performances at London Music Nights in Madrid, the opening concert at the Mozartwochen in Salzburg, two performances at Thüringer Bachwochen Germany, concerts at the Festival Internacional de Arte Sacro in Madrid, as well as at the Fundación Juan March, the opening concert of the prestigious “Universo Barroco” concert series at the chamber hall of Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid performing Bocchrini’s Stabat Mater along soprano Nuria Rial (recorded and broadcasted by the Spanish national tv and radio) and took its “A ntonio Caldara: The Cervantes Operas ” to Muziekcentrum De Bijloke in Ghent.
La Ritirata has been recently awarded the Culture Prize of the Comunidad de Madrid in the classical music category – the most distinguished cultural award granted yearly by the Region’s Government that rewards Josetxu Obregón’s research and dissemination of Early Music in this decade, and which has led La Ritirata to perform more than 230 concerts in 22 countries on 4 continents.