Doménikos Theotokópoulos’s (El Greco) travels through 16th century Europe in search of work and patronage are mirrored in this musical journey from Crete, his birthplace, to Venice, Rome and, finally, the Spanish city of Toledo. The historically studious, oft-recorded and well-traveled group Capella de Ministrers, directed by Carles Magraner, favors the musical Spanish patrimony from medieval times up to the 19th century.

This release is the third and final installment of “Ramon Llull: l’ultim pelegrinatge.” The songs featured on this album bear traces of the Mediterranean coasts, where Llull journeyed in the last years of his life. The Capella de Ministrers conducted by Carles Magraner perform alongside the Musica Reservata Barcelona for this auspicious recording.

This new release, Peregrinatio, is the second part of the trilogy Ramon Llull: l’ultim pelegrinatge. These medieval pieces are performed by Capella de Ministrers. Carles Magraner conducts the ensemble for this recording.

Neither Lucrezia Borgia nor any of the female members of the nobility in that time ever had a musical chapel, unlike their respective husbands. However, part of his domestic budget was destined to string instrument players maintenance, singers and, to a very important person: a dance teacher. If being aware of the latest fashion dances was a socially essential issue, so it was musical evenings organization, with the common instrumental group composed by lutes or violas, an instrument that seems to had it's origins in Valencia in the middle of XV century, and from there traveled to Italy. About Lucrezia musical taste nothing is known, but not so her husband Alfonso d'Este, who (perhaps) in homage to his new wife was at the head of six violas consort in the celebrations of their own wedding, reflected in this Capella de Ministrers recording.

Processional by the nuns of the holy, sovereign and illustrious military order of Saint John of Jerusalem (14th - 15th centuries). Music and liturgy in a noble convent: The Royal Convent of Sijena.

Capella de Ministrers was formed in 1987 in Valencia by its director, the Valencian musicologist Carles Magraner (viola da gamba). The primary importance of the group is in the focus on restoring Valencian musical culture. Part of the group's mission is the recovery of Valencian musical heritage, from their first CD of 1989 - Música Barroca Valenciana. This first release contained little-known villancicos by a number of Valencian composers: Juan Cabanilles (1644–1712), Francisco Hernández Pla (d.1722), Joseph Pradas Gallén (1689–1757), Francisco Vicente Cervera (d.1749) and Pere Rabassa (1683–1767). The productions of the group follow the historical context to musical performance and releasing books with CDs, as in the book Music and Poetry for Ausiàs March, dedicated to the 15th Century Valencian poet. The Iberian composers promoted by Capella de Ministrers cover a span of 500 years from anonymous medieval pieces such as found in the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, El Cant de la Sibil·la, El Misterio de Elche, etc., through baroque works such as the ensaladas of Joan Brudieu, to better-known composers such as Vicente Martín y Soler. Soler's zarzuela La Madrileña (Madrid 1778) was revived by Magraner in 1996.[3] The group has also promoted a revival in public and academic interest in the Majorcan composer Antonio de Literes by performance of Los Elementos and other works.

Leonardo da Vinci's grotesque heads place us far from the search for beauty, in a world at odds with form (deformity) and the norm (abnormality). Is there music in that world? Music –which is, by definition, harmony– has historically found a role in the world of the grotesque thanks to its eternal symbiosis with the word and the body. This grotesque music program dives into those sources.

Ever since its foundation in 1987, the Capella de Ministrers ensemble, directed by Carles Magraner, has developed an important investigative and musicological task in favor of the musical Spanish patrimony, from the medieval times up to the 19th century. The result transformed into musical testimony, brings together the perfection of three key factors: the historical rigor, the musical sensibility and, specially, an uncontrollable desire to communicate and they make us participants of these experiences.

Classical Music

Beginning in 1265, Capella de Ministrers wants to take listeners on the musical journey of Ramon Llull. This journey begins in Mallorca, through Barcelona, Paris, Genoa and Naples. This release shows how Llull developed throughout his compositional life as well as the influences of his travels, as it is divided into three distinct sections; Ars Antiqua, Peregrinatio and Mediterraneum.

The Middle Ages are replete with a large number of eschatological themed compositions, as well as works relating to funeral rituals.It is significant that most of the few musical pieces recoverable from ancient Hispanic liturgy belong to the Officium Defunctorum.The varied repertoire on ‘Planctus’ consists of macabre-themed works – laments, dances of death, responsories and other poetic-musical expressions in the form of antiphons and tropes, reflective of the questions humans have about the afterlife, the meaning of life and death, and the fear or hope that lies behind these questions.

The enacting of the Alhambra edict in 1492 caused a forced migration of Spain’s remaining Jews. With them traveled the liturgical texts of poets from Spain’s “Jewish golden age”, and all the music that today preserves the oral tradition, songs and poems of medieval Hispanic culture. This release represents a part of that musical legacy, a fragment of the tradition and the history of the Sephardic Diaspora. Founded in 1987, the renowned Capella de Ministrers ensemble, directed by Carles Magraner, offers historical rigor, musical sensibility and, unparalleled communicative abilities.

La Cité des Dames is a collection of female authors' works, active in liturgical, paraliturgical, secular, vocal and instrumental music. Some are very famous: Kassia, Hildegard of Bingen, Landsberg Herrada, Beatriz de Día. Others are less known: Héloïse, Margaret of Austria and Anne Boleyn. This album also pays special attention to Hispanic composers: Blanche of Castile and Gracia Baptista.

This musical presentation by Capella de Ministrers leaps out from its origins in mediaeval myths and literature to give listeners a direct connection with the true meaning of the Grail. It is a journey encompassing the various musical traditions along the path taken by the Grail through the centuries, from the Holy Land to Brittany, from the Pyrenees to San Juan de la Peña until its ultimate arrival at Valencia Cathedral. The Grail is both legendary and mystical, a holy relic that appeared in stories during the middle part of the mediaeval period. It is a precious and mysterious object in the shape of a plate full of Christian symbolism, like the bloody lance which is reminiscent of the lance thrust into the body of Christ on the cross – the mystery of redemption and eternal life. From Crusade songs, chants sung in pilgrimage centers, mediaeval literature reflected in music, to the emblematic symbolism the Grail acquired with Alfonso the Magnanimous. Towards the end of the Middle Ages when the Turks were circling Constantinople, it seems that the ideal of the Crusades disappears like a dream and only a vague memory of the Grail endures, while Alfonso the Magnanimous proudly displays the Perilous Chair as a heraldic device which glorifies his deeds. Virtud apurar no’m fretura sola (My virtue will not falter until I reach my goal). Capella de Ministrers has gathered together music and poetry from the Middle Ages by authors and composers such as Chre´tien de Troyes, Robert de Boron, Wolfram von Eschembach and He´linand de Froidmont. The music and poetry is all linked to the subject of the Grail and encourages us to discover its meaning through our own personal quest, based on our knowledge of the past and through the recreation of the music.

This release compiles Cantigas de Santa Maria from Capella de Ministrers' recordings: El Grial (CDM1845), La Ruta de la Seda (CDM1743), Ramon Llull (CDM1640), Moresca (CDM1028), Musica Angelica (PMV004) and Lamento di Tristano (CDM0307). The edition of this album commemorates the 800th anniversary of the birth of Alfonso X el Sabio, the 10th anniversary of Early Music Morella and Xacobeo 2021. Ever since its foundation in 1987, the Capella de Ministrers ensemble, directed by Carles Magraner, has developed an important investigative and musicological task in favor of the musical Spanish patrimony, from the medieval times up to the 19th century. The result transformed into musical testimony, brings together the perfection of three key factors: the historical rigor, the musical sensibility and, specially, an uncontrollable desire to communicate and they make us participants of these experiences.

All the works on this release are modal improvisations (mawwal) or adaptations of instrumental music, anonymous Arabic-Andalusian classical and traditional songs. Poet Ibn Hazm of Córdoba was born in 994 and lived through the most critical years of Islamic al-Andalus. His era witnessed the break-up of the Caliphate and the formation of taifas, which inevitably hastened the decline of Moslem power in the Iberian peninsula. He was a privileged witness of these events, and he records them with a rich and prolific, encyclopedic opus. The Ring of the Dove is an eleventh century prose work written in Arabic by Ibn Hazm. The full title of the work is The Ring of the Dove, On Love and Lovers. The title reflects the custom in the Arabic literature of the period to create ornamental titles: a dove is pretty, but it is the ring that allows it to achieve optimal beauty.