Sevilla Circa 1560 - La Trulla de Bozes (2002)

ARTIST`````Various

ALBUM`````Sevilla Circa 1560 - La Trulla de Bozes

GENRE`````Classical, Renaissance, Andalusian

YEAR````````2002

Secular oolyphony of the Andalusian school

Founded just a few years ago, La Trulla de Bozes has made a specialty of repertoire from Spain's Golden Age, and this CD is a result of the group's first-prize win at Antwerp's International Young Artist's Presentation Early Music in 2000. The recording is a testament to the players' technical skills and considerable interpretive gifts--and, equally importantly, it gives exposure to some gorgeous repertoire that isn't as widely known as it should be.

The best-known composer in this collection of secular music certainly is the illustrious Francisco Guerrero, who served as maestro de capilla at the Seville cathedral. Although he lived until 1599, it is his early work--compositions written before the year 1550 or so--that creates the program's basic structure. From the moving madrigal En tanto que de rosa y açuçena to the painterly portraiture of the springtime tune "Dezidme, fuenta clara", Guerrero's mastery even as a young man is already clear. But it is the works of contemporaries such as Rodgrigo Cevallos, Juan Navarro, Alonso Mudarra, Juan Vásquez, Francisco Fernandez Palero, and Ginés de Morata that are particularly illuminating in forming our deeper understanding of the era. And the Trulla singers bring this music to life: their rhythmic vivacity and brightly colored tone really make these compositions gleam. With Passacaille's vibrant (but not overly resonant) sound, recorded in a church in Navara, Spain, this disc is a real pleasure.

Credits:

- Raquel Andueza, soprano

- Carlos Sandúa, alto

- Karim Farhan, tenor

- Juan Díaz de Corcuera, tenor

- Xavier Pagès, barítono

- Raúl del Toro, órgano

- Manuel Vilas, arpa

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