In the later decades of the 16th century, the musicians of S. Giacomo degli Spagnoli, the Spanish national church in Rome, were charged with the task of pulling together the performing forces for the Easter celebration, the most important festival in the church year. It was a massive undertaking, with performances outdoors on the Piazza Navona as well as in the churches surrounding the square, involving numerous choirs, orchestras, soloists, organists, instrumental consorts, and brass ensembles, not to mention fireworks and ...
Read More
In the later decades of the 16th century, the musicians of S. Giacomo degli Spagnoli, the Spanish national church in Rome, were charged with the task of pulling together the performing forces for the Easter celebration, the most important festival in the church year. It was a massive undertaking, with performances outdoors on the Piazza Navona as well as in the churches surrounding the square, involving numerous choirs, orchestras, soloists, organists, instrumental consorts, and brass ensembles, not to mention fireworks and cannons. For this two-disc set conductor Albert Recasens and the chamber orchestra and choir, La Grande Chapelle, have put together a collection of choral and instrumental works that would likely have been included in these Easter spectacles. It's a terrifically diverse group of pieces, including massive antiphonal works that bring the music of Giovanni Gabrieli to mind, a cappella works for men's, women's, and mixed choirs, brass fanfares, keyboard solos, and chamber pieces...
Read Less
