Andrea de Carlo

The disc under review here is the fourth in a series, called ‘The Stradella Project’. I don't know which parts of Stradella's oeuvre will be included in this project. He was a prolific composer, and his extant output comprises music for the stage, liturgical and non-liturgical sacred music, madrigals and cantatas. It also includes six oratorios, and two of them were the subject of volumes 2 and 3. I am sure that the two best-known oratorios, San Giovanni Battista and Susanna, will be recorded at a later stage. As these are available in several performances, it was a good idea to start with those oratorios which are seldom performed. That also goes for Santa Pelagia.

Following four successful recordings released on the Ricercar, Alpha and Arcana labels, Rome-based Andrea De Carlo and his Ensemble Mare Nostrum continue their exploration of the Roman repertoire and inaugurate here a new series of recordings, with its own distinctive artwork, devoted to the vast and multifaceted musical heritage of the Eternal City.

Carlo Gesualdo might get all the attention when it comes to colourful composer biographies but Alessandro Stradella (1639-82) gives the murderer-composer more than a run for his money. A fraudster, playboy and serial seducer (wimples no object), Stradella was the subject of at least one failed murder plot and was eventually stabbed to death by an unknown killer. If his music can’t quite live up to the thrills of his life, it’s still got plenty to recommend it, as this latest recording from Ensemble Mare Nostrum demonstrates.

The ensemble Mare Nostrum (dir. Andrea De Carlo) and Nora Tabbush (a worthy heir to Montserrat Figueras) here revive some pure treasures of Spanish music. Combining early instruments (viola da gamba, cornetto, etc.) with traditional ones, they bring out all the colours of these songs and dances that were to be heard in New Spain. New Spain, the Spanish viceroyalty (1535-1821), stretched from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah (United States) to Costa Rica in Central America, with Mexico City as its capital.