In this new album devoted to Mateo Romero’s secular compositions, Cappella Mediterranea continues Fuga Libera’s survey of the Belgian-born Spanish composer’s work. When you listen to these arias for three and four voices, you can not only detect the influence of Iberian music, but also the Italian madrigal, Franco-Flemish polyphony, and all that heralds the birth of opera.
Barbara Strozzi was not only a virtuosic singer but also a talented composer. Following in the footsteps of Monteverdi, her vocal compositions display an array of different styles through which she expresses the intensity of human emotion.
Peter Philips was celebrated throughout Europe as the greatest English composer of his time, and yet his work has been forgotten today. Philips drew upon a variety of traditions to create music that astonishes us with its expressiveness. This new album from Cappella Mediterranea transforms silence into consonance, consonance into emotion, emotion into colour, and colour into poetry.