"emilio D'emilio"

Thanks to recordings such as this one, the figure of Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) is increasingly coming into focus and prominence as a notable contemporary of Beethoven who deserves better than his previous obscurity. In 1807, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described the Wilms as ‘one of the most ingenious, spirited, and best educated artists’ of his generation: a judgment borne out by the this trio of high-spirited chamber works.

Piani was well enough regarded in his own time to get hired in Paris and then across the continent in Vienna, where he spent the last four decades of his life. He has been forgotten probably because the group of Sonatas, Op. 1, that are excerpted here are his sole surviving works. With the rise in popularity of Francesco Maria Veracini and the other Italians who took their music to France and England in the early 18th century, Piani is worth getting to know.

Emilio Aragón conducts the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra (performing the classical part) together with three Cuban percussionists and Alain Pérez on the double bass. The challenge is to integrate Afro-Cuban rhythms into a classical context such as the Brandenburg concerts, for which Alain Pérez replaces the Bach basso continuo, typical of the Baroque, with the Cuban tumbao bassoon, giving adequate space for percussion, such as the guaguancó, conga, danzón, contradanza, son, bolero… and which could feel comfortable around violins.

Lovers of the Spanish Baroque may be surprised to see the subtitle "17th-century violin music in Spain" here, inasmuch as non-keyboard instrumental chamber music following Italian models has never surfaced before. Indeed, the booklet transmits statements by writers of the time bemoaning the lack of such violin music. What's happening here is that Spanish historical-instrument group La Real Cámara and its director-violinist Emilio Moreno have hypothesized that Spanish organ music might have been arranged for other instruments in the same way Italian music certainly was; Girolamo Frescobaldi specifically attested to this.

La Real Cámara was formed in 1992 with the prime aim of rescuing and reviving the Spanish musical heritage of the 17th and 18th centuries. Emilio Moreno was commissioned in 1992 by the Consortium which organized Madrid, European Capital of Culture to create and direct an ensemble of chamber music that was able to interpret this rich and new repertoire. A highly talented group of Spanish musicians was chosen, all well established internationally, plus collaborators of the highest level such as Enrico Gatti, Natsumi Wakamatsu, Wouter Möller, Guido Morini, María Cristina Khier, Gaetano Nasillo and Roel Dieltiens.