Taracea

The debut of the Taracea ensemble creates a bridge between past and present. The Madrid-based trio’s artistic project is to combine early music, jazz and improvisation. Its founder Rainer Seiferth, a German musician who lives in Spain, plays the vihuela, the Spanish counterpart of the Renaissance lute. Belén Nieto is a flute and recorder specialist and a regular member of Jordi Savall’s ensembles. The double bass player Miguel Rodrigáñez is at home in jazz, flamenco and classical music.

The debut of the Taracea ensemble creates a bridge between past and present. The Madrid-based trio’s artistic project is to combine early music, jazz and improvisation. Its founder Rainer Seiferth, a German musician who lives in Spain, plays the vihuela, the Spanish counterpart of the Renaissance lute. Belén Nieto is a flute and recorder specialist and a regular member of Jordi Savall’s ensembles. The double bass player Miguel Rodrigáñez is at home in jazz, flamenco and classical music.

The increasing popularity of consort music and lute songs at the 16th-century English court gave rise to a specific type of song, usually sung by a boy soprano together with a consort of 3 to 5 viols. These ‘consort songs’ flourished particularly during the reigns of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and her son James I (1603–1625). Especially attractive examples of such songs are gathered and arranged here, and sung by the Dutch soprano Klaartje van Veldhoven, who specialises in early and Baroque music, having regularly sung as a soloist with many of Europe’s foremost early-music ensembles and conductors such as Sigiswald Kuijken and Ton Koopman.

Bach’s Goldberg Variations have gained iconic status. Ever since the legendary recording of Glenn Gould in 1955 it took the world by storm, and its popularity reaches well beyond the boundaries of traditional classical music audiences. Originally written for “Clavecimbel mit zwei Manuale” the perfect counterpoint and instrumental brilliance of the 30 variations invite for performances on other instruments, finding new facets and hidden treasures in this immensely rich music. This new recording presents a new arrangement for recorder consort, written by the ensemble Seldom Sene. Recorder Consort Seldom Sene has already recorded two highly praised albums for Brilliant Classics: Taracea (BC94871) and “El aire se serena” (BC95204).

New pieces for recorder consort, written for and dedicated to the talents of a young Dutch ensemble with a growing catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings.