Credits:

Patino, Carlos (1600-1675)

Description:

King Carlos I of Spain, the first Spanish music director of the Flanders Choir, who later became Holy Roman Emperor Carl V between the Renaissance and Baroque eras, invited polyphonic geniuses from Flanders (present-day Belgium and its vicinity), where he himself spent many years, to pursue the art of advanced polyphony. The Flemish choir was an elite musical organization of the Spanish royal family. Although there were a number of Spanish composers who produced masterpieces of polyphonic church music during the Renaissance, such as Cabezon, Morales, and Victoria......, the Spanish kings favored only Flemish composers. The choir was directed by Mathieu Romarin, the last Flemish music master, after his retirement in 1637, and was led by Cavalli and Carissimi from Italy, and Moulinier and Chambonnière from France, among others. Patiño, a Spanish musician of the same generation, was appointed music director of the Seville Cathedral at a young age. He single-handedly organized the musicians of the royal Spanish and Flemish choirs, and continued his remarkable career at the court of Felipe IV, known as the Planet King (master of the great painter Velázquez).Unfortunately, much of his work was destroyed in the Great Fire of the Alcázar in 1734, but this album collects his rare church music and offers a fresh and solid performance of the best of his large-scale polyphony in eight and twelve voices. Under the direction of Spanish musicologist/conductor Recasens, the ensemble of eight elite singers and seven instrumentalists of ancient music is richly nuanced, with brass, woodwinds, and strings intermingling. The style in which only the bajón (dulcian, a Renaissance instrument that was the predecessor of the bassoon) supports the bass part, except for the organ, is unique to Spain. This album, along with its extensive commentary (English translation included), offers a close-up look at an important turning point in the history of Spanish music. Naxos Japan