Ensemble La Favorita is an early music ensemble based in the The Hague, the Netherlands, specialized in the early 18th-century vocal repertoire composed around the court of Vienna. The Habsburg Court of Vienna was famous for having top players on many different instruments, with a special instrument being extremely en vogue: the Chalumeau. Unless playing a solo obbligato role in operas, the instrument was usually paired with other soft-voiced instruments such as traverse flute, recorder, viola da gamba, and viola d’amour. There is a large number of beautiful, not often performed repertoire featuring soprano, chalumeau and traverse flute. Ensemble La Favorita brings this music back to life and to capture the unique spirit of a small, Viennese court orchestra from the 18th century.
Our artistic project aims to enhance the refined and rich use and combination of obbligato instruments that define the unique style of the Viennese vocal music production. Thanks to its wide selection of woodwind and string instruments, La Favorita explores, in a reduced setting, the incredible range of colors and expressive potential of the viennese court orchestra, which hit its maximum size during the reign of Charles VI with 81 musicians and invites the audience to discover rare and forgotten musical gems.
Sofia Pedro – Soprano
Giulia Zannin – Chalumeau
Tiziano Teodori – Traverso
Lena Rademann – Violin
Anna Lachegyi – Viola da Gamba, Cello
Eva Euwe – Violone, Double bass
Henriëtte Wirth – Harpsichord, Organ
The Ensemble La Favorita was founded in 2016 by a number of students and alumni of the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and as a very international ensemble, includes members from Italy, Hungary, Germany and the Netherlands. As a group, La Favorita has received coaching in the field of historical informed performance and chamber music from early music specialists such as Fabio Bonizzoni, Eric Hoeprich, Enrico Gatti, Mike Fentross, Peter Van Heyghen and Raquel Andueza. The name of the Ensemble reflects the spirit behind a great number of compositions written for the Habsburg Court in Vienna in the 18th century, often written to celebrate and honour aristocratic women (or the Empress herself, the Favourite) and special occasions related to these women, such as births, weddings, coronations or name-days.
In 2017 La Favorita has performed for the Utrecht Early Music Festival (fringe), MABruges (fringe) and has been chosen together with few other selected emerging groups, to participate in the International Young Artist’s Presentation in Antwerp where it has performed within the Laus Polyphoniae festival. The group performed for the prestigious italian early music festival “Antiqua”, the concert series of the “Accademia Villa Bossi”, the “Utrecht Early Music Festival (fringe)”, the opening concert of the chamber music festival “Kamerklanken” in ‘s Hertogenbosch and several other concert seasons throughout the Netherlands.