Marco Longhini graduated in conducting from Milan Conservatory as well as studying architecture in Venice (his dissertation looked at the relationship between architecture and performance), after completing earlier studies in composition, choral music and singing at the Padua Conservatory. He has conducted orchestras both in his native Italy (I Pomeriggi Musicali, Angelicum Orchestra, Milano Classica and Orchestra da Camera di Mantova) and abroad (Nederlandse Reisopera and Orquesta Ciudad de Granada). In 1992, his lengthy explorations of 16th- and 17th-century Italian music, combined with his passion for musicological research, led him to found Delitiæ Musicæ with a view to reviving often unpublished masterpieces of Italian early music. 20 years of experience in this repertoire, performing all over Europe, has made him one of the most sought-after conductors in his field. With a graceful and expressive technique, Longhini is ideally suited to bringing out the full emotional potential of Baroque repertoire. He is also much in demand in the opera house, conducting a wide range of pre-Romantic stage works: highlights include a performance of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo recorded by RAI, Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo and a much-acclaimed staging of Sartorio’s L’Orfeo, directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi.
He has an extensive discography, notably the complete Monteverdi madrigals and complete secular works of Gesualdo for Naxos. Other recordings include Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo, Banchieri’s La pazzia senile and Saviezza giovenile; Monteverdi’s Litanie, Messe e Magnificat della Beata Vergine, and Carissimi’s Sciolto havean dall’alte sponde. His performance with Delitiæ Musicæ of a new edition of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at the opening concert of the Fribourg Festival was broadcast on Swiss Radio.
Marco Longhini has taught at the Luca Marenzio Conservatory in Brescia since 1992 and also teaches choral direction at Brescia’s Scuola Diocesana Santa Cecilia. In 2010 and 2016 he was invited to give classes on Monteverdi and on performing Italian music at Moscow Conservatory.
The Heart of the Hunter – Marco Longhini talks to Jeremy Siepmann