FRANCISCO CORSELLI (1705-1778)

1-3 Achille in Sciro: Ouverture
(Madrid, 1744)

4-5 A ti, invisible Ruiseñor Canoro
(Madrid, 1749)

6-7 Achille in Sciro: Marchas

8 Lectio 2ª in Sabato Sancto
(Madrid, 1749)

9 Oratorio de Santa Clotilde: Ouertur (Parma, 1733)

10 Lamentación 2ª del Jueves
(Madrid, 1773)

11-13 Il Farnace: Sinfonia
(Madrid, 1739)

14-15 Hasta aquí, Dios amante
(Madrid, 1740)

16-17 Il Farnace: Marchas

This is the first CD of a new period instrument orchestra, El Concierto Español, and also the first recording on the market entirely devoted to the “Spanish” composer Francisco Corselli, chosen for this debut not only for novelty’s sake but because of the condition of virtual masterpiece that each of the composer’s creations possesses.

Born in Italy, of French origin and later becoming a Spanish subject, Corselli excelled in all the genres of religious music: masses, antiphons, psalms, litanies, hymns, vespers, villancicos, cantatas and lamentations like those that can be heard on this recording. Corselli’s ear for timbre contributed a new colour and a fresh sonority to the orchestra. Established in Madrid since 1734 where he was royal kapellmeister, he became one of the most significant musicians of 18th-century Spain.

El Concierto Español, the new orchestra directed by Emilio Moreno, has set itself an ambitious goal: recovering unknown and unjustly neglected repertoire from the Spanish baroque and pre-classical periods, and offering it to the public through both live performances and recordings of the highest quality. No focused attempt to do so had been undertaken by anyone before this moment, in a country still full of many forgotten musical treasures.