Juan Tiento

During the mid-16th century in Spain, it became increasingly common for collections of music to include tablature that would enable performers of other polyphonic instruments to perform the repertoire. With the recent addition of chromatic strings, the harp was one such mechanism to benefit from this, and its presentation in this beautifully performed compilation of works offers a fascinating glimpse into the rich world of Iberian Renaissance music making.

Presenting First Vespers and the Salve Service as it might been celebrated in October 1617 in the presence of King Philip III and the Duke of Lerma, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & Players bring these early 17th century works to glowing life, the rising and falling cadences of voices mingling with the counterpoint of the magnificent organ of the Cathedral in Lerma.

This disc from the Bogotá, Colombia-based ensemble Música Ficta jumps on the fast-moving bandwagon carrying Baroque music from Latin America. It is billed, with unnecessary specificity, as covering "Feast and Devotion in High Peru of the seventeenth century," but like other releases in this general repertoire it ranges widely, including music from other Latin American countries and from Spain itself, and covering music of several centuries. The subtitle is a bit misleading but not seriously annoying, for all this music traveled quite a bit in its time, and all the lands that are individual countries today were simply part of New Spain.

AAM Records’ newest release features the Academy of Ancient Music joining forces with The Choir of Keble College and director Matthew Martin in a landmark recording of Francisco Vall’s ‘forgotten’ Missa Regalis [1740]. Performed from a new edition by Simon Heighes, Valls’ fascinating (and frequently confusticating) juxtaposition of ancient and ‘modern’ compositional styles provides a intriguing glimpse into the treasure-trove of Spanish baroque music, much of which remains relatively unknown to the wider world.