Recorded in July 2023 in Zaragoza, at the Sala Luis Galve of the Auditorio de Zaragoza, ‘Incipit lamentatio’ brings back to life five unpublished lamentations by Francisco Corselli, Master of the Royal Chapel of Madrid between 1738 and 1778.

The lamentations selected for this recording for this recording belong to the period during which Corselli worked in the service of King Philip V and King Ferdinand VI. A great variety of compositional resources, diversity of tempi and instrumental techniques, such as pizzicati or the use of mutes in the string instruments can be observed, all at the service of an emotive exegesis of the text. Besides strings, the lamentations often include other instruments that help to reinforce the feeling of affliction, as is the case of flutes, an instrument closely linked to this type of repertoire due to the association of its tone with mourning. As for the compositional style, the imprint of Pergolesi’s work is evident in these lamentations, especially of his Stabat Mater, which was widely disseminated throughout Europe and of which a copy is preserved in the Musical Archives of the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Recorded in July 2020 in Épila, at the Palacio del Conde de Aranda, “Cristal bello” focuses on sacred music in Spain and Viceroyal Mexico from the 18th Century.

The composers included in this recording belong to a generation born around 1700. These musicians were very much influenced by Neapolitan authors such as Leonardo Vinci or Leonardo Leo, whose music enjoyed a wide diffusion throughout the whole Hispanic world during the first half of the 18th Century. It was these composers who, on a more regular basis, began writing for the flute, an instrument that was gradually introduced in the Spanish musical chapels from the decades of 1720-1730, its use being registered later in the musical chapels in Ibero-America.

The album contains works by Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella, José de Nebra, Jaime Casellas, Francisco Hernández Illana, Pietro Antonio Locatelli y Juan Martín Ramos.

Recorded in October 2018 in Épila, at the Palacio del Conde de Aranda, “Spanish Travelling Virtuosi, Vol. 1” is the first volume of a series of recordings which La Guirlande wants to make in order to recuperate and make 18th century Spanish music more widely known.

“Spanish Travelling Virtuosi” centres itself in pieces from the Spanish repertoire of the 18th century, composed by musicians who had the shared characteristic of being brilliant virtuosi on their respective instruments. Another common feature is that they were all tireless travellers who passed through the main musical centres in Europe of the time, obtaining great praise and critical acclaim wherever they played.

The album contains works by the Pla brothers, Joaquín Nicolás Ximénez Brufal, Giacomo Facco, Felipe Lluch and Joan Cabanilles.