Orphénica Lyra / José Miguel Moreno / Nuria Rial / Carlos Mena FUENLLANA Libro de mùsica para vihuela intitulado Orphénica Lyra

The Libro de mùsica para vihuela intitulado Orphénica Lyra is one of the most important vihuela publications of the 16th century. The work of the blind vihuelist Miguel de Fuenllana, it appeared in 1554 bearing a dedication to "Philip, Prince of Spain, King of England (1554 was the year of Philip's short-lived marriage to Mary Tudor) and Naples." Fuenllana, who subsequently entered into the service of Philip II, was rated one of the best performers of the day, so skilled that he was apparently even capable of playing on an untuned instrument. His ambitious and extraordinarily diverse Orphénica Lyra contains 188 works spread over six books that include both his own compositions and arrangements of works by some of the most popular composers of the period, among them Josquin (with 13 works, second in quantity only to Morales), in addition to those listed above. 

While it is not unusual to come across the odd piece from the publication on recital discs, the present issue is the first I've encountered to be wholly devoted to Orphénica Lyra. Only two original works by Fuenllana himself are included, the remainder of the program being devoted to his arrangements, in themselves rearranged for the vocal and instrumental ensemble that bears the name of the publication. There cannot, of course, be the slightest aesthetic objection to such a procedure, although given that Moreno is probably the greatest vihuelist of his day, it might have been agreeable to hear him play a few more solo tracks. Such regrets, though, are soon banished by the sheer quality of these performances. How well this group works together! The opening track, an extract from Flécha 's well-known ensalada La Bomba featuring the entire group of soprano Nuria Real, countertenor Carlos Mena, three violas da gamba, recorder, Renaissance guitar, gentle percussion, and Moreno's vihuela, displays a lively idiomatic approach symptomatic of what follows. Few of the tracks are quite so fully scored, and for me some of the highlights of the disc are the captivatingly lovely songs by Juan Vazquez, surely the greatest of all 16th-century Spanish song-composers, and the name most frequently represented. Also here is Sermisy's famous chanson Tant qui vivray in a fascinating arrangement, one of the few in which Fuenllana allowed himself instrumental embellishment. 

The production is well up to Glossa's usual high standard, with splendid sound, and an exemplary note by Ivan Moody. A splendidly varied collection that by turn delights, seduces, and haunts the mind. Strongly recommended. (FANFARE / Brian Robins)

José Miguel Moreno LUIGI BOCCHERINI Guitar Quintets

Without any doubt this is one of the great recordings produced by Glossa, as well as being the only recorded occasion in which the two co-founding brothers of the label – guitarist José Miguel Moreno and violinist Emilio Moreno – have taken part together. In the hands of these fabulous specialists, who are accompanied by a tiple treble guitar and castanets in the famous Fandango, two of Boccherini’s guitar quintets sound here with an unparalleled intensity and brightness. (GLOSSA)

Orphénica Lyra / José Miguel Moreno MÚSICA EN EL QUIJOTE

We stand before Glossa's distinct and definitive contribution to the 4th centennial celebration of the Quixote: this is no "music in the times of...", nor an association of a composer to the myth on the sole basis of their coincidence in time, nor a work inspired by the novel, but precisely that which everybody felt to be missing: a kind of "soundtrack" for the Quixote, in which the musical references which pepper Cervantes great work and some of his Novelas Ejemplares are collected and lovingly performed. Romances and songs alternate with dances such as chaconnes, folías and jácaras, creating a beautiful and accurate musical landscape in which the reader will easily locate our hero's adventures.

This disc also marks the reencounter of José Miguel Moreno with his renewed group, Orphénica Lyra, after some rather quiet years on the discographic front. Nuria Rial, with a voice that soars to sublime heights of beauty, sensitivity, and agility, shares the scene with a surprising Raquel Andueza, and both sopranos are joined by the voice of Spain's probably best countertenor of the day, Jordi Domenech. On the instrumental level, an ensemble that knows how to convey the taste of an era like no other: Eligio Quinteiro, Fernando Paz, Fahmi Alqhai, and Álvaro Garrido, conducted from the vihuela by a Moreno in full command of his powers. (GLOSSA)

José Miguel Moreno LA GUITARRA ESPAÑOLA

There is no question of José Miguel Moreno being anything other than the leading Spanish specialist in historic plucked string instruments. As a concert performer, researcher, builder and collector of instruments and co-founder of the Glossa label, Moreno has, over the last thirty years, been the guiding beacon for a number of succeeding generations of guitarists and lutenists the world over. Glossa was the label for which he recorded two of his now legendary programmes, La Guitarra Española (1536-1836) and La Guitarra Española (1818-1918). These had previously been deleted but we are now bringing them back as a doubledisc set.
Moreno plays a range of instruments made either by Lourdes Uncilla or by himself in order to infuse with a new vitality the fundamental repertories in the history of the guitar as bequeathed by the vihuelists Narváez, Milán and Mudarra, then later composed by figures such as Francisco Guerau, Santiago de Murcia and Gaspar Sanz, and subsequently through the romantic scores of Fernando Sor and Johann Kaspar Mertz. Tárrega and Llobet, the great masters of post-Romanticism, close this survey striding with infinite musicality across the most representative compositions of four centuries of the Spanish guitar.
This special edition marks, as well, the departure point of a new process of collaboration between José Miguel Moreno and the label which he helped to create, with brand new recordings being planned, which will appear from the autumn of this year onwards.

Nuria Rial / José Miguel Moreno CLAROS Y FRESCOS RÍOS

Spanish soprano Núria Rial has a voice ideally suited for early music. Her tone is marvelously pure and strong, but unforced. Her delivery is natural, and the easy agility she brings to even the most florid passages has the unmannered directness of folk song. Especially distinctive and attractive are the warmth and lively intelligence of the personality she puts across in her singing; she's equally at ease in playful whimsy and in heartfelt laments. These Spanish songs and villancicos from the Renaissance, many of which have the spontaneity, simplicity, and memorable lyricism of folk song, are an ideal showcase for displaying Rial's gifts. The vihuela, a close relative of the guitar, was the most popular instrument for accompanying songs in Renaissance Spain, and José Miguel Moreno plays various vihuelas and Renaissance guitars here, performing with fluidity and finesse. He also has several solo tracks. The composers, including Alonso de Mudarra, Diego Pisador, Miguel de Fuenllana, Esteban Daça, and Enríquez de Valderrábano, who are likely to be known primarily to fans of the Spanish Renaissance, wrote these songs and dances during the 16th century. The gentle charm of the music and lovely, graceful performances make this a recording that should be of strong interest to early music fans. Glossa's sound is clean, clear, and warmly present. (Stephen Eddins)

José Miguel Moreno / Emma Kirkby / Carlos Mena, J.S. BACH De Occulta Philosophia

In 2001 the German label ECM released a disc under the title Morimur on which the violinist Christoph Poppen and the Hilliard Ensemble presented the findings of the musicologist Helga Thoene. She had discovered a whole series of fascinating numerical relationships in the music of Bach, especially in the sonatas and partitas for violin, shedding light on messages the composer had hidden ‘between the lines’. Three years earlier, in 1998, Glossa had already released a recording based on the identical Thoene studies. Here, the voices of Emma Kirkby and Carlos Mena recreated the choral parts of Christ lag in Todesbanden, enveloped by the magical sonority of José MiguelMoreno’s baroque lute in his exquisite transcription of the D minor Ciaccona for violin.

We have now reedited this disc within the Glossa Platinum collection. A fundamental part of the Glossa catalogue, it has been unavailable in stores for a number of years. On it, after 15 minutes of intoxicating interaction between Moreno, Kirkby and Mena, the lutenist from Madrid interprets the complete versions of the Sonata BWV 1001 and the Partita BWV 1004, both originally for violin, in an enchanting performance which has led his numerous fans, among which can be found a good part of the specialized press, to wonder when he will take on the bulk of Bach’s oeuvre... (GLOSSA)

José Miguel Moreno / Eligio Quinteiro LUYS MILÁN Fantasía

This is the second instalment in an innovative line of work that the ever-restless José Miguel Moreno, founder and principal artist of Glossa, inaugurated with the recently issued Semper Dowland Semper Dolens. Together with Eligio Quinteiro, the magnificent plucked-string continuo player living in London, Moreno proposes an intellectual exercise which consists in adding a second instrumental part, in the manner of a second voice, counterpoint and harmonic development, to pieces that were originally conceived for a solo instrument. The recording technique utilised enhances the total interweaving of the instrumental resources, making the two discrete sound sources almost indistinguishable.

In line with a philosophy grounded in historical criteria, this procedure favours the possible over the probable. With a profound understanding of the music of Luys Milán, whose works he has previously recorded on CDs that have since become points of reference, Moreno once again surprises us with this emotive journey to the Spanish Renaissance. (GLOSSA)

José Miguel Moreno / Eligio Quinteiro SEMPER DOWLAND SEMPER DOLENS

One of the most attractive and poignant repertories from across the whole Renaissance is undoubtedly to be found in the output of John Dowland, the composer of the greatly-admired Lachrimae and the musical representative of a whole philosophical, literary and artistic outlook when it comes to evoking melancholy. Lutenist José Miguel Moreno, co-founder of Glossa and architect of cult recordings devoted to Sylvius Leopold Weiss, J.S. Bach and Robert de Visée, could not miss out on his encounter with English repertoire and, in 2002, he recorded this double disc covering, across some 32 pieces, the most significant of Dowland’s works, and accompanied by Eligio Quinteiro on the theorbo or gittern (Renaissance guitar). This is one of those albums which define the whole aesthetic standpoint of a label… (GLOSSA)

Marta Almajano / José Miguel Moreno LAS MUJERES Y CUERDAS

The album title is that of the final song, Sor’s Las mujeres y cuerdas, with its caveat that both women and strings need ‘tuning’ – but carefully. The cover is adorned with Madrazo’s painting (1853) of the Countess of Vilches (seated in the luxurious surroundings appropriate to her rank), whose demeanour suggests that she may be dreaming of romantic love, or perhaps listening to musical expressions of it. The gentle guitar was at that time popular as an accompanying instrument in the home or salon, incapable of supporting anything vulgar or excessive; the publishing of guitar-accompanied songs was a flourishing trade. The song by Martin y Soler, a composer of opera buffa, was published with the 

option of guitar or keyboard; all the others were composed or arranged by guitarists. Giuliani, the darling of the Viennese salons, exercised his (Italian) gift of melody in responding generously to the market, whilst Sor worked as a singing teacher during his sojourn in London, from which time the songs in this recording (and many others) date.
These graceful and sometimes coquettish songs of the joys, frustrations and pains of love are punctuated by suitably day-dreaming guitar solos. Marta Almajano sings them beguilingly though not without sacrificing consonants to beauty of tone, but the texts are printed in the substantial booklet, as are a number of charming reproductions of paintings. Moreno’s contribution is excellent in all respects. This well-recorded and lavishly produced album should appeal to all who care to share the dreams of the Countess of Vilches, in whatever surroundings they may find themselves.' (John Duarte / Gramophone)

Ensemble La Romanesca AL ALVA VENID

One of the great attractions of Spanish court music of the 15th and 16th centuries is its unashamed use of themes from the popular tradition. It is music where joy is completely extroverted, where sorrow is pensive, and where expression of the passions is simple and direct. It reflects the self-conscious assertiveness of a new Spanish era, a pride in national values, and a disposition towards the enjoyment of local popular art. It was a period in which the poetic traditions of the romance and the villancico with their traditional melodies achieved the height of popularity among the highborn and, in turn, spawned new musical forms that were developed by musicians during the sixteenth century, particularly in the instrumental domain. Not all Spanish music of the period, however, is devoted to the celebration of the popular, and the secular music of the period should be seen in balance with the magnificent contribution to polyphonic music in the international style made by Spanish composers including Peñalosa, Morales, Guerrero and Victoria who worked under Church patronage to provide music for worship. 

The elevation of popular music to the status of art was not an isolated phenomenon, but an element of a broader panorama. The earliest manuscript relics of this tradition, the Cancionero Musical de Palacio, the Cancionero de la Colombina, and the Segovia and Barcelona manuscripts represent the period immediately following the marriage of the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabel, in 1469. The union of Castile and Aragon brought about by their marriage set the stage for further strengthening of Spain as a political unit. The nation was elevated, through unanimity of faith that was both a tool and a creed that fired the expulsion of the Moors and expansion through discovery. It is in this context that Ferdinand and Isabel decided to employ only Spanish musicians in their chapels. They encouraged music with simple structure and a strong national identity to reflect cultural self-confidence at a time when sophisticated contrapuntal artifice was becoming the vogue in elsewhere in Europe, particularly in the musical fashion centres of the Low Countries and in the Hapsburg dynasty into which they married their children Juan and Juana.

Ensemble La Romanesca’s Al alva venid covers some essential Spanish Renaissance repertoire with an all-stars line-up, in a set of interpretations which have set deep marks and are absolute references: here is Marta Almajano in her best singing moment, here is Paolo Pandolfo confirming his superior artistry, here are Juan Carlos de Mulder and Pedro Estevan in “de luxe” supporting roles, and of course here is José Miguel Moreno, the man who has probably been the finest translator of Renaissance secular Spanish music onto record. (GLOSSA)