El blando susurro: Spanish and Italian sacred music from the seventeenth century
Pre-concert talk by Álvaro Torrente at 6:30 PM
Raquel Andueza soprano
Jesús Fernández Baena theorbo
Pierre Pitzl baroque guitar
The evening will combine a pre-concert lecture and concert that will focus on a variety of Spanish and Italian devotional songs from the seventeenth century, a repertory that was intended for private social gatherings and not public religious ceremonies. The concert will bring attention to shared private devotional practices of Spain and Italy from a period that saw an increased production of pious poetry and spiritual guidebooks by influential Spanish writers and theologians. The program will include contemplative songs for the Child, the Virgin, the Eucharist, and the Crucifixion.
Program:
ENAMORADITO ESTÁ Carlos Subias (ca. 1650)
NINNA NANNA AL BAMBIN GIESÙ Anonymous (XVIIth Century)
FOLÍAS Gaspar Sanz (1640–1710)
MORENAS, GITANAS Anonymous (XVIIth Century)
DORMI, DEH, DORMI Anonymous (XVIIth Century)
ESPAÑOLETAS Anonymous (XVIIth Century)
VIVO SIN VIVIR EN MÍ Text: Santa Teresa de Jesús (1515–1582), Reconstruction: Álvaro Torrente (n. 1963)
NINNA AL SANTO BAMBIN GIESÙ Anonymous (XVIIth Century)
CAPONA Anonymous (XVIIth Century)
EL BLANDO SUSURRO Sebastián Durón (1660–1716)
STAVA IN ROZZA CAPPANELLA Anonymous (XVIIth Century)
CANARIOS Gaspar Sanz (siglo XVII)
DORMI, O NINNO Cristoforo Caresana (ca. 1640–1709)
JÁCARA DE JESÚS CRUCIFICADO Text: Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645), Reconstruction: Álvaro Torrente (n. 1963)
Álvaro Torrente earned a degree in musicology at the Universidad de Salamanca and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. After two years at Royal Holloway, University of London, he was appointed at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he is currently lecturer in music history and head of the Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales. From 2007–2017 he was director-at-large of the International Musicological Society. His research and publications focus on the sacred villancico and on Italian opera of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Álvaro Torrente has collaborated with Raquel Andueza and La Galanía since 2013 in the recovery and reconstruction of lost musical scores of dance songs from the Spanish Golden Age. Some of the results, including examples of primitive zarabandas, chaconas and jácaras, have been included in the CDs Yo soy la locura II (2015) and El baile perdido (2019), and have been performed in more than forty cities on four continents.