Celebrate the flowering of spring Entre dos Álamos, “between two poplars,” in a rare New York appearance by Piffaro, the Renaissance Band!

This evocative phrase, the title of our concert, is from Juan Blas de Castro’s setting of a lyrical fragment from Lope de Vega’s novel Las fortunas de Diana. In this tale, the envious river Tagus tries to separate two lovers, just awakened by the arrival of the new season.  It’s one example of the magnificent music from 16th and 17th century Peru, Bolivia, and Chile that Piffaro’s virtuosic multi-instrumentalists and a stellar cast of singers – sopranos Nell Snaidas and Estelí Gomez, alto Kirsten Sollek, tenor Jonatan Alvarado (a special guest from Argentina by way of the Netherlands), and bass-baritone Andrew Padgett will bring back to life. 

Jonatan Alvarado performs A cierto galán su dama from the Codex Zuola

The European wind instruments that arrived in South America with Spanish settlers in the early 16th century were quickly mastered by the indigenous musicians of the region, who incorporated shawms, dulcians, and sackbuts into their own musical culture as well as becoming proficient performers and composers of European polyphony. The subsequent two centuries produced a body of work unsurpassed in its magnificence – work that Piffaro, with its unrivaled collection of meticulously reconstructed period instruments, is uniquely suited to presenting.

Listen to Piffaro perform Versos al organo con duo para chirimias, Manuel Blasco, Ecuador (c. 1684)

The MetLife Foundation Music of the Americas concert series is made possible by the generous support of Presenting Sponsor MetLife Foundation. This concert is part of GEMAS, a project of Americas Society and Gotham Early Music Scene devoted to early music of the Americas. Original support for this program is provided by by grants from The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation and The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.

Playlist

• Dime Pedro por tu vida from Codex Zuola
• Cachua Serranita from Codex Trujillo of Peru
• Francisco Guerrero’s Beatus vir (performed at Vespers services at Lima Cathedral)
• Cristóbal de Belsayaga’s Magnificat (one of the first pieces of polychoral music written in South America)
• and much more!