Recorded during the first Corona lockdown, Sonya Yoncheva's project emerged from silence with an urge for a "rebirth that our world desperately needs at present, something that it achieves by drawing on the very deepest recesses of the human psyche and on its origins in music and the arts". - SY
The works of Cipriano de Rore (1515/16 – 1565) remained extremely popular until well after his death. Several of his madrigals later appeared in dozens of ornamented versions and continued to do so until the beginning of the 17th century; this was an extraordinary success for the time.
Ulisse all’isola di Circe was the first opera to be staged in the Southern Netherlands. It was first performed in Brussels on the occasion of Philip IV of Spain’s wedding to Maria-Anna of Austria on 24 February 1650, although we know that the spectacle was revived in 1655 at the express wish of Queen Christina of Sweden. Gioseffo Zamponi was most likely born in Rome between 1610 and 1620. He made his career in the Southern Netherlands, entering the service of Archduke Leopold-Wilhelm, governor of the Netherlands, in 1648, for whose establishment he composed sacred music and also played.
Given that not one of the Masses by Jacques Arcadelt was included in our boxed set that revealed his immense musical personality to the world, we now remedy this situation with an indispensable addition. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon chose the Missa Noe Noe, which is presented here in the context of the Christmas liturgy. We have also included motets not only by Arcadelt but also by Josquin Desprez, as he was the great model for musicians of his generation. The recording ends resoundingly with Josquin's imposing Benedicta es coelorum regina for six voices, although in an expanded version for twelve voices by Jean Guyot de Chatelet (1512 - 1588): another Walloon composer to be discovered!
Born in Liège, Matheo Romero was in the service of the Spanish court; his secular works show that he had perfectly assimilated the characteristics of his adopted country’s music. Composed at the very beginning of the baroque era, these romances, folias and canciones also show the influence of the Italian madrigal style and of its effects; just as in the madrigals proper, Nature is the prime inspiration for the texts’ professions of love and amorous deceptions. For the first time, the talented Argentinean conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón brings together his two ensembles: the voices of Capella Mediterranea and Ens. Clematis. This combination revives the tradition of Spanish chapels around the reign of Charles V in Madrid. A meeting of the Capilla Flamenca and Capilla Spagnola.
The virtuoso Venetian diva of the 17th century, Barbara Strozzi, Monteverdi's heiress, journeys the passions of the soul through a daring mosaic of styles and rhythms. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, who is one of the rising generation of baroque conductors, is leading a major research project on the specific parameters which make up musical performance, paying particular attention to improvisation techniques and the relationship between text and music. His work at the Ambronay Festival has focused on the performance of 17th-century Italian music including rich and little-known repertoire of motets and madrigals by Barbara Strozzi, Isabella Leonarda and Antonia Bembo.