The Spanish composer Sebastián Durón (1660-1715) has been known mostly for zarzuelas, and the villancicos heard here, hanging between sacred and secular, are recorded for the first time in all but two cases on this release, which is scholarly but attractive for general listeners. You have to get some distance into the booklet notes before you find out that the "two dynasties" of the title refers to Charles II, Spain's last Habsburg monarch, and to his high-powered wife, Mariana of Neuburg, of the Palatinate court of D ...
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The Spanish composer Sebastián Durón (1660-1715) has been known mostly for zarzuelas, and the villancicos heard here, hanging between sacred and secular, are recorded for the first time in all but two cases on this release, which is scholarly but attractive for general listeners. You have to get some distance into the booklet notes before you find out that the "two dynasties" of the title refers to Charles II, Spain's last Habsburg monarch, and to his high-powered wife, Mariana of Neuburg, of the Palatinate court of Düsseldorf. The latter apparently took a liking to Durón's music, but that's about as far as the influence of the double dynasty goes. Better to just sit and enjoy the music: Durón set himself the task of incorporating the Italian operatic style, complete with dramatic moments of dissonance, a clarino trumpet (beautifully played here by Hannes Rux), and paired violins, into the older Spanish tradition. There are any number of expressive devices in these pieces that sound as though they...
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