Un portrait de Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) sans concerto pour violoncelle, sans le menuet fameux du quintette en mi majeur ? Mais non moins fidèle au caractère du compositeur toscan émigré en Espagne : fantasque et passionné.

In his first recording for PASSACAILLE, Real Câmara revives the spirit of the excellent Portuguese court orchestra before the great earthquake of 1755, bringing to life a forgotten repertoire once written for performance at the magnificent court of King John V. in Lisbon: from the divertimenti of Pietro Giorgio Avondano, the Genoese concertmaster of the orchestra, to opera arias by the Portuguese composer Francisco António de Almeida and the Italian composers Rinaldo di Capua and Giovanni Bononcini.

Lovers of the Spanish Baroque may be surprised to see the subtitle "17th-century violin music in Spain" here, inasmuch as non-keyboard instrumental chamber music following Italian models has never surfaced before. Indeed, the booklet transmits statements by writers of the time bemoaning the lack of such violin music. What's happening here is that Spanish historical-instrument group La Real Cámara and its director-violinist Emilio Moreno have hypothesized that Spanish organ music might have been arranged for other instruments in the same way Italian music certainly was; Girolamo Frescobaldi specifically attested to this.

This instrumental disc which bears the subtitle “17th-century violin music in Spain” is a speculation around Spanish organ music having been arranged for other instruments in the same way Italian music of the time was. With a colourful setup of musicians including Enrico Gatti on violin, Leon Berben on harpsichord and organ, and Pedro Estevan on percussion, La Real Camara as directed by Emilio Moreno provides an adventurous and fully enjoyable view of the music which might have been heard in the century of Velazquez and Calderon de la Barca.