Customer Reviews

Venetian Composers in Guatemala & Bolivia [Hybrid SACD]

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The research that went into compiling manuscript sources in order to record these pieces is admirable, and represents an important step toward recovering the treasures of sacred music from 18th century Venice. It's unfortunate that more care wasn't taken with details.
The instrumental ensemble plays sensitively under the direction of Anibal Cetrangolo. The inclusion of cembalo (and the conspicuous absence of theorbo) in the composition of the basso continuo might merit some debate, but ultimately, they accompany effectively. The orchestra plays with refreshing precision, vitality, variety, careful attention to intonation and historically correct articulation choices.
The major weakness of the performance lies in the diction of the singers, which ranges from barely passable at best to hilarious at worst. This is the only area of the performance where attention to detail is insufficient; all three soloists are Italian speakers who sing Spanish texts with Italian accents so outrageous that the diction becomes quite distracting at times. Surely it would have been a simple matter to seek expert coaching on the text instead of taking it for granted and marring an otherwise beautiful recording.
The program notes and translations accompanying the recording provide significant background information on how the works of 18th century Venetian composers made it to the new World. It's a shame that the English translation is barely intelligible in places, because the listener deserves to know about the admirable amount of work and research that have gone into producing this recording. I'm looking forward to further projects from this conductor.