Harpsichordist, fortepianist and conductor.
Concerts
Rameau and Mondonville
Le Stagioni
Saint-Quentin (France) - Musée Antoine Lécuyer
14 March 2025
Splendore e bizzarria. Un secolo di musica spagnola
Roma (Italy) - Museo nazionale degli strumenti musicali
Festival Resonare fibris
27 March 2025
Récital · Basilique de Vézelay · La Cité de la Voix
Goldberg Variations24.08.2020
Featured
Biography
He took part recently in the ambitious ’Scarlatti 555’ project organised by France Musique; and made his début as a soloist with the English Baroque Soloists in harpsichord concertos by Bach in January 2019.
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'Having studied with the greatest performers and teachers, Paolo Zanzu is now one of the major figures in the harpsichord world in Europe and in the world. […] He is an inspiration as a concert artist and teacher.’ (France Musique)
After his studies in Italy, at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSM), and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with Orio Buccellato, Noëlle Spieth, Christophe Rousset, Carole Cerasi and Patrick Cohen, Paolo Zanzu was a prizewinner at the Bruges International Harpsichord Competition in 2010. Since then his career as a harpsichord and fortepiano soloist has taken him to major international venues (BBC Proms, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Cartagena International Music Festival, Festival de La Chaise-Dieu, Festival de Radio France Occitanie Montpellier).
Recordings
Officina Romana
A Wonder Lab at the Dawn of the 18th Century
Following the success of his solo recordings, Paolo Zanzu, at the head of his ensemble Le Stagioni, has come out with ‘Officina Romana’, featuring the countertenor Carlo Vistoli. In the early eighteenth century, Rome was one of the great music capitals of Europe. where Corelli, Handel, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, Caldara, Cesarini and many others crossed paths along with the great painters, sculptors, poets and philosophers of the age. The fruit of long reflection and research, ‘Officina Romana’ crystallizes this unique moment in the history of music by recreating an idealised musical evening, a conversazione, a sort of enlightened meeting of lofty minds in the palace of a Roman cardinal, with a programme mingling vocal and instrumental music in both orchestral and chamber formation. This programme highlights the creative genius, the estro of the time, its musical and technical inventiveness, in joining famous pieces with previously unrecorded ones. The Cristofori fortepiano - Cardinal Ottoboni owned one - also makes an appearance here.
Bach
The English Suites
Of the three great collections of keyboard suites that Bach produced, the English Suites were probably written first – around 1720 at Köthen. While we may marvel at their imposing architecture, along with their lyricism unfettered by formal constraints, or indeed the tender grace of their galanteries, what really makes these pieces unique is their power, their grandeur and above all their unbridled virtuosity, which together make them a landmark in the keyboard repertoire.
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Handel
Suites de pièces pour le clavecin
A fount of inexhaustible creativity, Handel more than any of his contemporaries embodies the spirit of his century. This native of Halle in Saxony, the son of a surgeon, ranged over the whole of Europe during the course of his life, bringing about a synthesis of musical cultures and styles unparalleled in the history of music. He was a prolific composer who left an indelible mark on his contemporaries’ memory, and over the centuries became synonymous with the musical genres on which he brought his genius to bear.