For its anniversary concert at the 2024 Arts Festival, Concerto Italiano will perform the celebrated Op 3 concertos for stringed instruments by Vivaldi, known as L'estro armonico ("harmonic inspiration"), which innovatively combine the older Baroque concerto grosso and the more modern concerto format. The work itself was an immediate hit at the time, and contributed to Vivaldi's reputation as the father of concerto grosso. This performance will give patrons an opportunity to experience how Concerto Italiano breathes new life into musical treasures from the past.

Alessandrini was only in his mid-20s when he established Concerto Italiano. Born in Rome in 1960, the charismatic conductor and keyboardist came to music relatively late, during his teenage years, and was at first self-taught. He felt instinctively drawn to the harpsichord after taking up piano and later sought out lessons with eminent Dutch harpsichordist and conductor Ton Koopman. Along with his own career as a conductor, Alessandrini is a virtuoso keyboard player who performs on the harpsichord and organ; his very first recording was of solo organ music.

The idea for Concerto Italiano initially centred around music for voice: its first concert was a performance of the 1651 opera La Calisto by Venetian composer Francesco Cavalli, who represents the generation of opera composers directly succeeding Monteverdi. Alessandrini chose this masterpiece from the early Italian Baroque for his first major appearance as a conductor, which took place in Rome in 1984. The singers he collaborated with on that occasion became the core of Concerto Italiano, which soon established a reputation as a leading ensemble for the interpretation of Renaissance and Baroque vocal music.