Accademia del Piacere, Fahmi Alqhai - Colombina. Music for the Dukes of Medina Sidonia (2022) [Hi-Res]

The Spanish ensemble Accademia del Piacere, founded in 2002 by gambist Fahmi Alqhai, is known for its excellent interpretations of rare pieces of Spanish Renaissance and Baroque music. Already the album "Muera Cupido" with Catalan soprano Nuria Rial received great praise: "... Spanish theater music of the 18th century, a colorful mixture, very colorfully played, in any case always with temperament and fire and fantastically sung by Nuria Rial." (SWR2 Early Music).

For "Colombina", the Accademia del Piacere has selected particularly charming pieces from the manuscript of the "Cancioniero de la Colombina", the songbook of the Colombina Library in Seville. The manuscript is undoubtedly one of the great musical monuments of Spanish Renaissance music. It was acquired in 1534 by the founder of the library, Hernando Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus, and was most likely composed by one of the first viol ensembles in the Duchy of Medina-Sidonia. Fahmi Alqhai, musical director of the Accademia del Piacere, rediscovered the sound of this ancient ensemble five hundred years later for his Accademia del Piacere. Thus, these hardly heard pieces from the Andalusian music school of the 15th century are brought to new life

The album contains instrumental pieces like "Calbidi Castigliano" by Joan Ambrosio Dalza, but also fantastic vocal pieces like "Nunca fue pena mayor" by Juan de Urrede or "Quien vos dio tal señorío" by Juan de Triana and equally enchanting pieces by anonymous composers like "Muy crueles bozes dan" or "Praeludium-La Spagna", which Fahmi Alqhai has provided with his own arrangements for his ensemble.