Ensemble Diderot

Director: Johannes Pramsohler

https://www.ensemblediderot.com

Ensemble Diderot is now one of the foremost European chamber music groups performing exclusively on period instruments. The French music magazine Classica qualified them as ‘splendidly prepared to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Musica Antiqua Köln.’

Based in Paris and taking its name from French philosopher Denis Diderot, the ensemble’s core consists of four musicians around violinist and director/founder Johannes Pramsohler. Whilst it always takes chamber music as the starting point, Ensemble Diderot also appears in an orchestral formation and has since 2018 had its own chorus. From the exploration of Baroque chamber music and an inexhaustible heritage of trio sonatas, quartets and larger ensemble sonatas of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, right through to staged opera performances - a busy schedule and like-minded performers have given the group a cohesion akin to that of a permanent string quartet.

The ensemble has been an acclaimed guest on stages and media platforms around the world including Kölner Philharmonie and Vienna Konzerthaus. Upcoming appearances include performances at Aldeburgh Festival, Berliner Philharmonie, Opéra de Lille, The Hague, Opéra de Rouen, Auditorium di Milano Fondazione Cariplo: Largo Gustav Mahler, Kölner Philharmonie and tours through Austria, Germany, Italy and France of its recent recording projects Sonate a quattro, Bach: A Musical Offering and Zelenka: Lamentations. Prior larger scale performances have included repertoire such as Handel: Concerti Grossi Op.6, Bach cantatas, and operas such as Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Falstaff by Antonio Salieri, Croesus by Reinhard Keiser, and the oratorio Athalia by George Frideric Handel. Of their 2024 production of Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Forum Opera wrote ‘Johannes Pramsohler leads everyone with great precision’ and of the ensemble ‘We have admired the beautiful sounds of the strings of his ensemble.’

Johannes and Ensemble Diderot will collect an International Classical Music Award (ICMA) on 12 April 2024 for winning Baroque album Sonate a quattro, and their new album, Berlin Harpsichord Concertos, will be released on Audax Records on 17 May. The ensemble’s highly regarded recordings for Audax, many of which are world premieres, have been referred to as ‘standard-setting,’ and have been awarded international prizes including the Diapason d’Or, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, International Classical Music Award (ICMA), Gramophone Editor’s Choice, BBC Music Magazine Choice, and CD of the Month (Record Geijutsu, Japan).

Upcoming recordings and touring programmes for Ensemble Diderot include Arias for Bass by Handel, Vivaldi, Monteverdi with Nahuel Di Pierro (release date October 2024), Arias by Mozart and contemporaries with soprano Adriana González (recording May 2024 for release early 2025) and Telemann Complete Quintets (recording winter 2024/2025 for release 2025).

Ensemble Diderot is currently resident at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles in Paris and at the Euregio Kulturzentrum Toblach, Italy in the beautiful South Tyrol area - the subject of a recent ‘Musical Destinations’ feature in BBC Music Magazine. Ensemble Diderot receives funding from the French Ministry of Culture.

Ensemble Diderot is managed worldwide by Percius, except in the following territories: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal & Latin America. www.percius.co.uk

For further projects and for print, please download Ensemble Diderot’s full biography.