Minha Prima Raquel

Jesús Legido, one of the greatest composers of contemporary Art song in Spain, is portrayed here in this first recording of a selection of his voice and piano songs, which draw inspiration from folklore and his poetic influences (like Antonio Machado and Federico García Lorca). Renowned Spanish soprano Raquel Lojendio, accompanied by pianist Irene Alfageme, invites us to this marvelous voyage through love, death and life, the three pillars of Legido’s poetic and powerful language.

Francesco Cavalli is one of the main baroque opera composers of the XVIIth Century. His music is full of passion, dissonances, beauty, joy, torment… And the ensemble of La Galanía, leaded by theorbo player Jesús Fernández Baena and soprano Raquel Andueza, has compiled a selection of his most wonderful arias and duets for soprano and alto, creating themselves their own small play, Miracolo d’Amore, a love and betrayal story between the two singers.

"The fourth installment of our Ferdinand Ries Edition with the Schuppanzigh Quartet presents two selected works that underscore the composer's great importance! Throughout his life, Ries, a student of Beethoven, was preoccupied with the composition of string quartets and quintets. The C major String Quintet op. 37 was composed in 1809 and dedicated to the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who had made a name for himself in Vienna as the primarius of the "Schuppanzigh Quartet" which he had founded. In Ries's quintet, what is special and new about the opening of the movement is that the theme itself, introduced at the beginning, first leads to the home key, rather than beginning or standing stably in it. It is also striking that the opening theme is not introduced by one instrument alone.