Emilio Cao, born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1957 is a musician and composer of traditional galician music. He is one of the greatest performers of the celtic harp and the one who re-introduced that instrument in modern galician folklore. His first music experiences took place in his hometown were he participated in different cultural and music projects like ""Brétema or "NHU"...
La Real Cámara was formed in 1992 with the prime aim of rescuing and reviving the Spanish musical heritage of the 17th and 18th centuries. Emilio Moreno was commissioned in 1992 by the Consortium which organized Madrid, European Capital of Culture to create and direct an ensemble of chamber music that was able to interpret this rich and new repertoire. A highly talented group of Spanish musicians was chosen, all well established internationally, plus collaborators of the highest level such as Enrico Gatti, Natsumi Wakamatsu, Wouter Möller, Guido Morini, María Cristina Khier, Gaetano Nasillo and Roel Dieltiens.
Composed at a time when neither oratorio nor opera existed, Emilio de' Cavalieri's musical drama Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo combines song, stage action, dance, and instrumental music in perfect harmony. The work's libretto, attributed to Agostino Manni, presents a musical morality play in which soul and body dispute, with the participation of other allegorical characters and angels and souls both in heaven and hell. On this new recording, maestro Rene Jacobs illuminates this key work, which was written at the dawn of the Baroque revolution.
Thanks to recordings such as this one, the figure of Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) is increasingly coming into focus and prominence as a notable contemporary of Beethoven who deserves better than his previous obscurity. In 1807, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described the Wilms as ‘one of the most ingenious, spirited, and best educated artists’ of his generation: a judgment borne out by the this trio of high-spirited chamber works.
Lovers of the Spanish Baroque may be surprised to see the subtitle "17th-century violin music in Spain" here, inasmuch as non-keyboard instrumental chamber music following Italian models has never surfaced before. Indeed, the booklet transmits statements by writers of the time bemoaning the lack of such violin music. What's happening here is that Spanish historical-instrument group La Real Cámara and its director-violinist Emilio Moreno have hypothesized that Spanish organ music might have been arranged for other instruments in the same way Italian music certainly was; Girolamo Frescobaldi specifically attested to this.