On 1 March 1620, the festa a ballo Delizie di Posillipo was performed at the Royal Palace of Naples to celebrate the recovery of King Philip III. Promoted by the Viceroy Pedro Gir�n, 3rd Duke of Osuna, the spectacle featured splendid stage designs by Bartolomeo Cartaro and music by some of Naples' finest composers: Pietro Antonio Giramo, Giacomo Spiardo, Andrea Ansalone, and especially Francesco Lambardi and Giovanni Maria Trabaci, maestro di cappella and organist of the viceregal chapel. As in the great court intermedii, the performance combined arias, canzonettas, and dances, with alternating instrumental groups. On stage, Pan and Venus, symbols of the terrestrial and marine realms, compete for Posillipo, but the contest ends with a solemn final dance. La Grande Chapelle faithfully revives this sumptuous ballo, framed by the religious ceremonies and music organised by the Spanish court in Naples, a brilliant reflection of it's power, multicultural identity, and Baroque splendour.

The enormous popularity enjoyed by the works of Jose de Nebra, the leading Spanish composer in the mid-18th century, is a cause for surprise. His manuscripts are scattered across archives throughout Spain and the Americas. Jose de Nebra rose to be one of the organists of the Spanish Royal Chapel in 1724 and it's vicemaestro from 1751. Following the 1750 prohibition of performing villancicos in the royal institution, Nebra composed a complete series of Christmas Day responsories for the Matins service. From among the different versions, La Grande Chapelle offers the full version from 1752, which is unquestionably one of the indispensable works of Spanish Baroque music. The performance of this collection, following the study and transcription of the musical sources still in existence, represents a premiere of great musicological and artistic interest.

Classical Music

The Officium defunctorum by Tom�s Luis de Victoria, published in 1605, is one of the masterworks of the musical Renaissance, which still moves us with it's austerity and expressive power. It was written "in the style of a swansong" for the funeral rites of the composer's patroness, the empress Maria of Austria, sister of Philip II and widow of the emperor Maximilian II. For the first time in a recording, La Grande Chapelle and Schola Antiqua place the work in it's liturgical context, restoring the two original days: the vigil for the dead and the mass which concludes with the rite of absolution. The funeral rites celebrated in Madrid in 1603 are evoked, by means of respecting the original performing forces, the inclusion of the lection, the responsories and the psalms written by Victoria himself, and the use of plainchant taken from sources of the period. This reading brings us closer in a new way to one of the most important dynastic ceremonies of the Spanish Habsburgs of the beginning of the 17th century.

The Forty Hours devotion is a mysterious celebration that consists of displaying the Blessed Sacrament on the altar for the time Christ remained in the tomb. In Spain this extraordinary prayer, lasting over three days, included siestas during which chamber vocal works were sung interspersed with instrumental pieces. Focusing on the music of Sebastian Duron, this album recreates the sound of one of these siestas using cathedral sources and the distinctive sonority of the dulcians. It mainly features tonos and villancicos, whose popular texts are a marvellous blend of simplicity and sophistication. The composer's art undoubtedly lies in expressing religious emotion using the same means as profane emotion: we are in church and at the same time surrounded by nature, like in a poem by Saint Francis of Assisi.

Crist�bal de Morales' fame and influence were enormous in his own time. More than 70 prints before 1600 included some of his compositions. The works of the musician from Seville were not merely an essential part of the repertoires of the most important churches and cathedrals of Spain and America until the end of the Modern Age, but they also enjoyed extraordinary prestige among theoreticians and historians. He only worked for short periods in posts in Spain and his name remains associated with the decade he spent at the papal chapel of Pope Paul III, from 1535 to 1545. In Rome he carried out his responsibilities as cantor alongside colleagues the likes of Costanzo Festa, Jacques Arcadelt and Juan Escribano. Morales was especially interested in texts for Lent, which include the celebration of Ash Wednesday and the Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays. La Grande Chapelle takes full advantage of the extensive number of these motets on liturgical texts for the Lenten season to pay homage to one of the great composers of all time.

The Missa Scala Aretina by Francesc Valls is considered to be one of the most important works of Spanish music history. Written in the polychoral tradition and based on Guido d’Arezzo’s hexachord, and named after him, the work resulted in heated controversy over aesthetics which arose as a result of one of its passages. La Grande Chapelle tackles the fascinating challenge of rediscovering this unique work in its original setting and presents us with a number of excellent unpublished pieces from Valls’ huge musical production.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The music of Sebastián Durón, like that produced in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Spain generally, has been undervalued for decades in that it was considered inferior to the work of the great composers of the Siglo de Oro. And yet he is one of the great figures of Spanish music – organist and composer in the Court of Carlos II and Mariana of Neuburg, the last monarchs of the House of Habsburg, becoming master of the Chapel of Felipe V with the advent of the new Bourbon dynasty. His support for the Austrian cause during the War of Succession led to his expulsion from the Royal Chapel and his exile in France in 1706. In commemoration of the third centenary of his death, this recording recovers a number of Durón’s religious works written in Spanish, mainly for 8 voices. What we find is a composer faithful to the Spanish tradition of the tono (song) and the villancico, but who masterfully integrates Italian elements into work of extraordinary expressive power. This is an opportunity to rediscover the sacred work of this fascinating musician who served two dynasties.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Although he is primarily remembered as the creator of zarzuela and Spanish opera, the sacred and secular vocal chamber music of Baroque composer Juan Hidalgo enjoyed success during his lifetime. Hidalgo's sacred works are perhaps less well known and were composed primarily for specific devotional practices in the palace, and most of his output was likely destroyed in the calamitous fire of the Royal Palace. However a partial restoration of Hidalgo's scores has been possible through recovered manuscripts and in this collection comprised of songs never before released, La Grande Chapelle has selected a varied group of these sacred songs known as tonos and villancicos that greatly illuminate the Baroque culture in Spain of those times.

Antonio Rodríguez de Hita is renowned as the creator of comic zarzuela during the 1760s. However, his scant theatrical works have overshadowed the vast majority of his musical legacy, primarily sacred in nature and composed for the prestigious Monastery of the Incarnation in Madrid, a Royal foundation. His religious works embrace a hybrid musical style, encompassing elements of late Baroque and Classical periods, stile antico, and theatrical language. In his Latin repertoire, Rodríguez de Hita displays a particular affinity for counterpoint and formal experimentation. The selection presented, drawn from his series of psalms, hymns, motets, lamentations, and especially Epiphany responsories, allows us to appreciate this fascinating musician and the richness of sacred music during the Enlightenment period.

La Grande Chapelle would not normally dedicate two separate albums to the same musician, but the relevance of Carlos Patiño and his long career as a composer at the service of the Spanish Court more than justifies a second look at his work. In addition to his vocal production in Latin, Patiño cultivated various musical genres in Spanish, mainly tonos and villancicos, which were written to liven up court parties and for devotion at the Royal Chapel. This album brings together pieces written in a minute format, generally four voices with thoroughbass, that are characterized by rhythmic richness and an intimate relationship with the poetic text. It is an important compilation for delving into Patiño’s work and, ultimately, for approaching the lesser-known music of the Spanish Golden Age.

Situated on the very western edge of Europe, Santiago de Compostela has been a spiritual and artistic center since the Middle Ages. In the seventeenth century, its cathedral enjoyed a golden age that led to the transformation of its Romanesque structure into a Baroque landmark. There, a polychoral style was abundantly cultivated, giving both solemnity and grandeur to religious ceremonies. Among the maestros that served the Compostela cathedral, José de Baquedano stands out. A Navarran composer who perfected his artform with Matías Ruiz at the Royal Monastery of the Incarnation in Madrid, he left a notable vocal legacy in Spanish and Latin after three decades of practice. Therein, his pieces written for Holy Week are especially remarkable. This recording offers a novel anthology of Baquedano's Latin work, with a selection of motets, psalms and lamentations written for two and three choirs, revealing the magnificent talent of this composer from Finisterre.

Antonio Soler is the 17th century’s Spanish composer with the greatest international projection. His fame is due to the celebrated sonatas for harpsichord and his chamber music. However, Soler also produced an extensive oeuvre of vocal music thanks to the more than thirty years he spent at the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where he was organist and maestro de capilla. This album gathers a carefully selected group of compositions in Latin written for two choruses and instrumental ensemble, some of which have never been recorded. Based on the technical procedures involved in polychoral writing, these works are made up of imposing choral sections- of both homophonic and contrapuntal textures- and sections for soloists with either a cantabile or virtuoso character closer to a theatrical style, all of which shows his mastery throughout an admirable stylistic spectrum. This pioneering initiative reveals the abundant imagination, the vocal writing skill and the ample scope of expressive resources employed by the great Catalan musician.

At the beginning of the 17th century the Brussels court experienced an extraordinary cultural splendour thanks to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella Clara Eugenia, during a period of peace and prosperity in the Southern Low Countries under Spanish Habsburg rule. The sovereigns, who were great collectors and patronized artists such as Brueghel de Velours and Rubens, maintained a magnificent musical chapel with a substantial number of Spanish, Italian and English musicians. It was in this context that the work of the Zaragoza native Pedro Ruimonte unfolded. Master of chamber music under the Archdukes, his Parnaso español (1614) represents one of the capstones in the history of Spanish music. This album reconstructs the musical landscapes of the Archdukes’ chapel and chamber music, characterized by a variety of styles and genres and an innovative spirit.

First monographic recording ever published about Cristóbal Galán, master of the Spanish Royal Chapel under the reign of Charles II (end of the 17th Century), with a refined selection of his best religious works in Latin and Spanish.