L’Estravagante is the fruit of the union of five musicians who wanted to share their common passion for chamber music, with the intention of working within a repertoire which, in being performed in a Baroque style with original instruments, rarely sees the establishment of groups with a strong tradition behind them.
The violinists Stefano Montanari, Elisa Citterio and Stefano Rossi, the cellist Francesco Galligoni and the harpsichordist and organist Maurizio Salerno consider the ensemble to be the best expression of a group effort and discovering that rare synergy necessary for the development of any creative project.
Even though its members have a rich experience behind them in both performance and teaching, recognized at an international level, the quartet was only formed recently. It has already made several CD recordings and played many concerts, appreciated both for their freshness and for the originality of their musical choices.
Thus the ensemble’s discography offers interesting monographic works like the Suonate a doi, violino & viola da gamba by D. Buxtehude, op. 1 and op. 2, published in 2007 on a double CD by the magazine Amadeus and by SACD for the Arts label, a version which received, in March 2008, the Supersonic Award from the prestigious journal Pizzicato.
For the occasion the viola da gamba player Rodney Prada took part in the musical project.
The subsequent recording for the ensemble was the six sonatas for a trio of two violins and basso continuo by J. Pachelbel, a fairly unusual work for its use of scordatura, a style used by composers like F.I. Biber, and once again published by Amadeus, this time in 2009.
They recently recorded a cd that include part of the Sonatas op.1 of Vivaldi, published by Amadeus in 2011 and re-edited by Naïve in 2012. The Ensemble monographs will reach their peak next year with the Corelli’s celebrations. Moreover the Ensemble is also known for its single voice repertory and the collaboration with musicians such as Michael Chance and Roberta Mameli have been highly prestigious.