Salsa Baroque cover
Released

Forgive this album’s kitschy title and blindingly fluorescent cover for a handsome reward: a celebratory, often revelatory, journey into the fascinating crosscurrents of the Latin American Baroque. Convincing performances of this repertoire must negotiate its intrinsically light, sprightly sound with the heaviness of the colonizing forces that created it when (mainly Spanish and Portuguese) missionary composers were exposed and, quite evidently, intoxicated by the indigenous timbres of 16th and 17th century Latin America. German recorder virtuoso Matthias Maute and Ensemble Caprice, his Montreal-based group, navigate these harmonic and historical dissonances with deftness and sensitivity. If nothing else, listen their poignant interpretation of Xicochi conetzintle, a Nahuatl-language villancico written by Gaspar Fernandes while he was the court organist of Puebla Cathedral – it encapsulates everything there is to enjoy, and to question, in this complex fusion of flavors.

Zev Kane

Suggestions
Johann Sebastian Bach cover

Johann Sebastian Bach

Víkingur Ólafsson
 Spohr & Martinu: Nonets cover

Spohr & Martinu: Nonets

Wolfgang Schulz, Alois Posch, Milan Turkovic, Wolfram Christ, Gerhart Hetzel, Günter Högner, Ensemble Wien-Berlin, Hansjörg Schellenberger, Karl Leister, Georg Faust
Dvořák: Quintets, Op. 81 & 97 cover

Dvořák: Quintets, Op. 81 & 97

Boris Giltburg, Pavel Haas Quartet, Pavel Nikl
For Seasons cover

For Seasons

Daniel Hope
Aranjuez cover

Aranjuez

Orchestre National Du Capitole De Toulouse, Thibaut Garcia, Ben Glassberg
Johann Sebastian Bach: Motets cover

Johann Sebastian Bach: Motets

Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
Barricades cover

Barricades

Thomas Dunford, Jean Rondeau
Beethoven & Stravinsky: Violin Concertos cover

Beethoven & Stravinsky: Violin Concertos

Pekka Kuusisto, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Vilde Frang
Golijov: Azul cover

Golijov: Azul

The Knights, Eric Jacobsen, Yo-Yo Ma
Sounds Of Transformation cover

Sounds Of Transformation

David Greilsammer, Yaron Herman, Geneva Camerata
Anima Sacra cover

Anima Sacra

Maxim Emelyanychev, Il Pomo d'Oro, Jakub Józef Orliński