SALVATORE ACCARDO
Salvatore Accardo gave his first professional recital in 1954 at the age
of 13, in a programme that included Paganini Capricci. In 1956, when he was
15, Accardo won the Geneva Competition and in 1958 became the first winner
of the Paganini Competition in Genoa. His vast repertoire ranges from pre-Bach
to post-Berg; composers like Sciarrino, Donatoni, Piston, Piazzolla and Xenakis
have written for him.
In addition to playing regularly with the world's leading orchestras and
conductors, Salvatore Accardo performs successful recitals and is particularly
devoted to chamber music. In 1992 he founded the Accardo Quartet and, because
of his deep involvement with young people, in 1986 he founded the Academy
Walter Stauffer together with Giuranna, Filippini and Petracchi in Cremona,
where they regularly give master-classes. In 1971 he founded the Settimane
Musicali Internazionali in Naples, where the audience is admitted to rehearsals,
and the Cremona String Festival.
In recent years, Accardo has also devoted part of his activities to conducting
and has appeared with a number of important European and American Orchestras.
He also recorded as a Conductor with the Philarmonia Orchestra of London.
In 1987 Accardo made a highly-praised debut as an opera conductor in a new
production of Rossini L'occasione fa il ladro at the Rossini Opera Festival
in Pesaro, directed by Ponnelle. In the following years he conducted at the
Rome Opera House, Monte Carlo Opera, at Lille and at the Naples Opera
House.
In 1992, in celebration of 200th anniversary of Rossini's birth, he conducted
both in Pesaro and Rome the first-ever modern edition of the Messa di Gloria
(recorded live by Warner Fonit), a feat which he repeated in 1995 in Vienna
with the Wiener Symphoniker.
Accardo has an extensive discography on Philips, DGG, EMI, Sony Classical,
Foné, Dynamic, Warner-Fonit and in 1999 he re-recorded the six Paganini
Concertos with the Orchestra da Camera Italiana for EMI Classics. Recently
Foné re-masterised the complete Mozart works for violin in 13 CDs,
using high quality valve technology.
Salvatore Accardo was awarded the Premio Abbiati by the Italian critics,
in recognition of the exceptional standard of his playing and
interpretation.
Italy's highest honour, the Cavaliere di Gran Croce, was bestowed upon Accardo
by the President of Italy in 1982. In 1996 the Peking Conservatoire named
him «most honourable Professor». In 1999 he was granted the order
of «Commandeur dans l'ordre du mérit culturel», the highest
honour of the principality of Monaco and in 2001 he received the prestigious
«Una Vita per la Musica» Award.
In 1996 Accardo re-founded the Orchestra da Camera Italiana (O.C.I.), whose
members are the best pupils of Cremona «Walter Stauffer» Academy.
In 1997, he registered two CDs with them: The virtuoso violin in Italy and
Masterpieces for violin and strings for Warner Fonit Cetra, marking the record
debut of the Orchestra da Camera Italiana. In 1999 Accardo and O.C.I. registered
the complete Paganini Concerti for violin and orchestra for EMI Classics,
the Concerto per la Costituzione and the complete Astor Piazzolla works for
violin in 3 SACDs for Foné.
Accardo is the owner of two Stradivarius violins: the Hart ex Francescatti
1727 and the Firebird ex Saint-Exupéry 1718.
