Solo & Double Violin Concertos

"Andrew Manze is a wild man among period-instruments violinists, but these exhilarating accounts dispel any notions of Bach as arcane and unapproachable."
- Dallas Morning News

"Andrew Manze is an adventurous, almost jazzy player. He has gone far beyond mere technical considerations, and developed a playing style that drips with personality and involvement. He makes you sit up and take notice."
- Continuo Magazine

"The Academy of Ancient Music reveal a judicious blend of scholarship and exquisite taste. Andrew Manze has a well-deserved reputation for baroque interpretation, and his colleague Rachel Podger, also on violin, performs with equal authority. The slow movements of the two solo concertos are particularly striking for their beauty and style...the sound is vibrant but without so much reverberation that the inner parts of the faster movements might have been obscured. The Academy's current incarnation has expanded that scope considerable, and this CD demonstrates that its interpretations of Bach are among the finest presented today."
- Audio

Andrew Manze is 'among the most exciting of early music's young blades' (The Independent), and has been referred to as 'a violinist with extraordinary flair and improvisatory freedom, the Grappelli of the baroque' (BBC Music Magazine), and 'the first modern Superstar of the baroque violin' (San Francisco Examiner).

As a player he specializes in repertoire from 1610 to 1830, and as a conductor he is increasingly in demand amongst 'modern' instrument orchestras. He also teaches, writes and broadcasts about many aspects of 'early music'.

A Cambridge Classicist by training, Andrew Manze studied the violin with Simon Standage and Marie Leonhardt. He became Associate Director of The Academy of Ancient Music in 1996 and has just been appointed Artistic Director of The English Concert from July 2003, as Trevor Pinnock's successor. He is also 'Artist in residence' at the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Andrew directed The AAM on their numerous tours across Europe in familiar repertoire (Bach and Vivaldi) and the not so familiar (Pisendel and Geminiani). In his newly appointed role at The English Concert, Andrew will move forwards into classical repertoire, including Mozart's violin concertos, orchestral works and reorchestrations of Handel's oratorios.

Manze is also active as a conductor in large-scale oratorio and symphonic repertoire, with the Deutsche Sinfonie Orchester (Bach and Mozart), as well as the symphony orchestras of Stavanger (Mozart, Bach's Christmas Oratorio), Tampere (Bach's Matthew Passion) and Norrköping (Messiah). He guest-directs the chamber orchestras of Zurich, Basel, Västerås and Norway, and period-instrument ensembles such as The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Schubert and Eybler), the Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, Philharmonia Baroque (USA), Tafelmusik and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, Andrew Manze continues to champion 17th- and 18th-century violin repertoire. Last season included two tours to the USA (with Richard Egarr), and a debut tour of Australia.

Manze records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa, and has produced an astonishing selection of CDs. Recordings made with his former trio Romanesca (of Biber, Schmelzer, Vivaldi etc.), with The AAM (Bach violin and harpsichord concertos, Handel Op.6 etc.), and as a soloist (Telemann and Tartini), have garnered many international prizes, including Gramophone, Edison and Cannes Classical Awards, the Premio Internazionale del Disco Antonio Vivaldi and the Diapason d'Or - each of them twice. Since 1984 his collaboration with Richard Egarr has been setting new performance standards. Their recordings include violin sonatas by Rebel and Bach (both awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik) and Pandolfi's complete violin sonatas (Gramophone Award 2000). Their recording of the complete sonatas of Handel was Editor's Choice in Gramophone, and notably entered the US Billboard Charts. Manze's first project with The English Concert is entitled 'Night Music' and includes Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Ein Musikalischer Spass.

Manze is also active writing programs for the radio, and articles for The Times of London, BBC Music Magazine etc. His cadenzas to Mozart's violin concertos have been published by Breitkopf & Härtel.