©Photo: Piera Mungiguerra

Lorenza Borrani

Violin

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“Borrani was amazing in her solos, fiery and hypnotic yet tender and liquid as well.”
(Sydney Arts Guide, November 2016)

Artist-in-Residence: Orchestra della Toscana

Lorenza Borrani’s inspiring play/direct programmes and inclusive approach in music making are recognized and appreciated by the world-renown orchestras. Alongside her orchestral activities, she is a committed chamber music partner in special projects with her close musical friends.

Play/direct engagements have included tours with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2016 and 2019 – where Borrani premiered her own orchestral arrangement of Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No.1. Norwegian Chamber Orchestra has welcomed her as their Artist-in-Residence in 2020. Highlights of the 2020/21 season include a return to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with a programme ranging from chamber music to Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.5 Reformation and debuts with Camerata Bern and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg. Upcoming seasons will take her back up north for debuts with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Västerås Sinfonietta and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Borrani is Orchestra della Toscana’s Artist-in-Residence in 2022.

As a chamber musician, Borrani has collaborated with artists such as Kristian Bezuidenhout, András Schiff, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Janine Jansen and Daniel Hope, and she often plays in a duo with Alexander Lonquich. Lorenza Borrani is one of the founders of Spunicunifait which is dedicated to play and record Mozart’s string quintets works. The group is currently recording for the Alpha label and performances are scheduled at Salzburg Mozartwoche and London’s Wigmore Hall.

Borrani is one of the co-founders of Spira mirabilis, a laboratory for the preparation and performance of orchestral and chamber music repertoire of all periods, which works without a conductor or a leader. Their recent projects have included Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, fragments from Mozart’s Così fan tutte and the premiere of Colin Matthew’s Spiralling, in Aldeburgh.

Franz Schubert: Symphony No.5 in B♭ major, D. 485 © Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

Franz Schubert: 5 minuets with 6 trios, D 89 © Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

Franz Schubert Stryketrio i B dur, D 581 © Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

Franz Schubert: String Trio in B flat major, D.581, 1. Allegro moderato © Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

Lorenza Borrani rehearses Schumann’s Symphony No.1 with Spira mirabilis © medici.tv

Lorenza Borrani & Chamber Orchestra of Europe © photowerk

“Lorenza Borrani led the Australian Chamber Orchestra with a style that always turned inwards to the music – its subtlety of phrasing, its expressive range and scope and its seriousness of utterance… Her arrangement of Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 1 for violin and string orchestra retained the work’s originality and intimacy.”

(The Sydney Morning Herald, Peter McCallum, March 2019)

“To have the audience leaning in, listening to the musical narrative, as guest director Lorenza Borrani does from bar one of the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s second tour for the year is really something… With Borrani directing with her focus on crisp articulation and style over swagger, Beethoven’s venerable
String Quartet No 16 becomes something quite different.”

(The Australian, Martin Buzacott, March 2019)

“Borrani’s adaptation of Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No.1 acted to amplify the work’s emotional polarities: the wild invention of Prokofiev’s harmonic and textural language was revealed and glancing blows of dissonance rebounded against itinerant cadences before yielding to more reflective lyricism. In the eye of this storm, Borrani’s robust yet sensitive playing offered a rock-steady anchor.”

(The Age, Maxim Boon, March 2019)

“Borrani’s contribution this year was Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 1, and it is masterly. She gains some amazing effects, from the resonant low passages at the
very beginning of the work to the sublime, silvery sheen of the closing bars of the first movement, the violin whirling around in wispy scales above a rumbling foundation. A fantastic piece, and a fantastic performance.”

(The Advertise, Peter Burdon, March 2019)

“Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No.1, arranged for violin and strings by Borrani, was given a powerful, passionate performance. The first movement opened sombrely and sorrowfully and featured an eloquent, almost heartbreaking solo by Borrani… It was breathless and tempestuous with a somewhat quieter segment then a return to the insistent flurries as a discussion between the various sections of the Orchestra and Borrrani. Dynamic and driven it ended on a circling, aching cry.”

(Sydney Arts Guide, Lynne Lancaster, March 2019)

“There is an obvious rapport between Borrani and the musicians of the ACO, who brought out the tenebrous menace she captures in her string arrangement
of Prokofiev’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Borrani brought a yearning melancholy to the lyrical moments that emerge from the grittier energy of the Allegro
Brusco, while her sinuous lines in the Andante were chilling at the lower end, her high register penetrating with a laser-like heat.”

(Limelight, Angus McPherson, March, 2019)

(Peter McCallum, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 2019)

“To have the audience leaning in, listening to the musical narrative, as guest director Lorenza Borrani does from bar one of the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s second tour for the year is really something… With Borrani directing with her focus on crisp articulation and style over swagger, Beethoven’s venerable String Quartet No 16 becomes something quite different.”

(Martin Buzacott, The Australian, March 2019)

(Maxim Boon, The Age, March 2019)

“Borrani’s contribution this year was Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 1, and it is masterly. She gains some amazing effects, from the resonant low passages at the very beginning of the work to the sublime, silvery sheen of the closing bars of the first movement, the violin whirling around in wispy scales above a rumbling foundation. A fantastic piece, and a fantastic performance.”

(Peter Burdon, The Advertiser, March 2019)

“Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No.1, arranged for violin and strings by Borrani, was given a powerful, passionate performance. The first movement opened sombrely and sorrowfully and featured an eloquent, almost heartbreaking solo by Borrani[…] It was breathless and tempestuous with a somewhat quieter segment then a return to the insistent flurries as a discussion between the various sections of the Orchestra and Borrrani. Dynamic and driven it ended on a circling, aching cry.”

(Lynne Lancaster, Sydney Arts Guide, March 2019)

“There is an obvious rapport between Borrani and the musicians of the ACO, who brought out the tenebrous menace she captures in her string arrangement of Prokofiev’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Borrani brought a yearning melancholy to the lyrical moments that emerge from the grittier energy of the Allegro Brusco, while her sinuous lines in the Andante were chilling at the lower end, her high register penetrating with a laser-like heat.”

(Angus McPherson, Limelight, March 2019)

“Tonight’s guest director, Lorenza Borrani impressed the audiences not only with her performance of Schnittke, but also with her leadership that shaped the big span of the Beethoven symphony in the plush acoustic of the Aula.”

(Kjell Moe, Kulturspeilet, October 2017)

“Her preferences for delicacy and exploitation of the many, many developmental shades of pianissimo in slowly building crescendos produced a remarkable sound. … What a joy to hear Alfred Schnittke’s Sonata for Violin and Chamber Orchestra played with such intelligence and humour!”

(Jennifer Gall, The Sydney Morning Hearald, November 2016)

“Borrani has lean, agile sound and appealing musicality and brought keen intelligence to the ‘polystylism’”

(The Sydney Morning Herald, November 2016)

“In the wrong hands, it could sound chaotic. Borrani and the ACO’s spectacular performance made it feel seamlessly structured. Always attuned to the sonata’s sudden changes of mood and violent stylistic juxtapositions, the group’s tight-knit ensemble and incisive attack realised the passages of dissonant aggression while their soft-grained sonorities and soulfully phrased melodic shards captured its moments of mournful reflection.”

(The Australian, November 2016)

“Borrani’s pizzicato double-stops producing a folky ambience as she effortlessly navigated sudden accents and dynamic shifts. The Schnittke was a fascinating work for which Borrani seemed to have an incredible affinity.”

(Limelight Magazine, November 2016)

“Under the excellent direction of guest director and violinist Lorenza Borrani, who clearly had a great rapport with the Orchestra, we were treated to a superb performance by the ACO. … Borrani was amazing in her solos, fiery and hypnotic yet tender and liquid as well.”

(Sydney Arts Guide, November 2016)