Andrea Falconieri: Il Spiritillo Brando: Dance music in the courts of Italy and Spain, c.1650

With 'Il Spiritillo Brando' from La Ritirata comes an opportunity to enjoy exciting performances from a new name on the Spanish early music scene as well as a thrilling ride across the terrain of the Spanish and Italian courtly instrumental traditions as the Renaissance danced its way into the Baroque.

Not since the days when brothers José Miguel and Emilio Moreno made their first recordings for Glossa has any Spanish musician been invited to figure on the label from El Escorial. This is now changing with the arrival of the talents of Josetxu Obregón and his Spanish colleagues from La Ritirata - counting amongst them the best in the younger string, plucked-string, wind and keyboard players from the country - as they bring us the dance rhythm delights of Andrea Falconieri, whose music leads the way into contributions from the likes of Diego Ortiz and Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde; permitting the individual members of La Ritirata to demonstrate their virtuosic skills and commitment to the music that they perform. This includes Josetxu Obregón himself, who as a cellist, delights in music from late 17th century exponents of the cello in Giuseppe Maria Jacchini, Giovanni Battista Vitali and Domenico Gabrielli. As the title implies, 'Il Spiritillo Brando' evokes both the social dancing which will have taken place in the court of the Spanish viceroyalty in Naples itself, and the mischievous duendes which roamed the streets, animating all the proceedings in the vicinity!