The Rome Symphony Orchestra was established in 2002 by the Rome Foundation (Fondazione Roma Arte – Musei), a rare example in Europe of an orchestra that was completely privately funded. Under its artistic and musical director Francesco La Vecchia who, in turn, set up the Fondazione Arts Academy, the orchestra performed regularly in Rome at the Teatro Argentina, Teatro Sistina and Auditorium Conciliazione.

It received critical and public recognition at distinguished venues in Asia, the Americas and Europe, with notable success in 2007 at the Berlin Philharmonie. The orchestra also undertook a wide-ranging and well received series of recordings, principally for Naxos, of important compositions by Italian composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Busoni, Catalani, Ferrara, Ghedini, Malipiero, Mancinelli, Martucci, Mercadante, Petrassi, Sgambati and Wolf-Ferrari. Many of these are world premiere recordings.

The orchestra was dissolved in 2014 not long after giving the first modern performance of Giovanni Sgambati’s Symphony No. 2.

Born in Rome, Francesco La Vecchia studied with his maternal grandfather and gave his first concert at the age of nine. At the age of 18 he became leader of the Boccherini Quartet, at 23 he founded the Arts Academy of Rome and, at the age of 27, he began his international recording career.

In 2002 he took up the position of artistic director and resident conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma. Under his leadership the orchestra rapidly achieved success in highly successful visits to St Petersburg, Madrid, Belgrade, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, London, Athens, Berlin, Beijing and Vienna. Francesco La Vecchia has also conducted at many prestigious venues, including the Kennedy Center, Washington, Carnegie Hall, New York, the Art Center, Seoul, the São Carlos National Theatre, Lisbon and the Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto.

The ‘Maestro’ series of recordings, named after him, was first released in 1999. Since then he and the Rome Symphony Orchestra have recorded for Naxos (an important and wide-rangng series of works by 19th- and 20th-century Italian composers, including many world première recordings), Brilliant Classics (Respighi) and Sony (Beethoven). He has been the recipient of several important official awards in Italy and abroad.

The Italian composer and musicologist Gian Francesco Malipiero is well-known for his comprehensive editions of the music of Monteverdi and Vivaldi. Prolific as a composer, he also provided arrangements and transcriptions of works by earlier Italian composers.

Stage Works

Malipiero wrote a large number of operas and a smaller number of ballet scores. The former explored forms of particular originality while changing with his developing personal style of writing.

Orchestral and Vocal Music

Orchestral music by Malipiero includes a series of symphonies of varied and original content, many of them distinguished by explanatory or allusive titles. Concertos by Malipiero include six for the piano.