Carmina Latina

Mariana Flores (soprano), NN (contre-ténor), Valerio Contaldo (ténor), Matteo Bellotto (baritone)
Chœur de Chambre de Namur / Cappella Mediterranea
Musical direction : Leonardo García Alarcón

From the polyphonies of the Iberian Peninsula to the sacred music of Latin America, Leonardo García Alarcón invites us on a very exciting musical journey. It reveals Spanish and Portuguese composers who set out to conquer the New World, where they were able to draw inspiration from local traditions to invent festive, deep and jubilant religious music.

Following the conquest of the “Americas”, the Spanish and Portuguese ecclesiastics and musicians exported all their polyphonic tradition to the new lands. These musicians have settled in the countries of Latin America, Juan de Araujo in Peru, Tomas de Torrejon y Velasco in Argentina ...

Some were born in the New World, which is the case with Gaspar Fernandez whose entire career has been spent in his native country: Mexico. In addition, the musical libraries of the churches of Latin America have preserved a large number of manuscripts which sometimes contain pieces totally lost on the European continent.

If these musicians brought to the "New World" their know-how as polyphonists, they were also seduced by local popular traditions, even going so far as to adapt the texts of the Catholic liturgy to indigenous languages.

It is this movement of the Iberian polyphonic tradition that is illustrated by this program which also makes room for the travels of these musicians in Europe, like the Spaniard Vittoria in Rome, where he is imbued with the style of the papal chapel….

With his musical verve, Leonardo García Alarcón makes this sacred program a hymn to the divinity carried by frenzied rhythms and unleashed performers.