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QUINTETOS PARA EL CONDE

Integral of string quintets with two violas by José Palomino de la Quintana (1753-1810)

The work of José Palomino, of which these quintets are a testament to the high quality of his writing, deserves a prominent place among the musical production of the Enlightenment in the Iberian Peninsula, thanks to its beautiful lyricism, skillful harmony, and a style that often foreshadows future aesthetics. In this collection of string quintets with two viols, dated 1780 and dedicated to the 6th Count of Fernán Núñez, Spanish ambassador to Portugal until 1788, the influence of Luigi Boccherini is more than evident. The brilliance in the major keys, the melancholy and depth in the minor keys, but above all, the exquisite cello solo passages lead us to consider the stylistic imprint of the master from Lugo.

Indeed, the cello lines stand out for their virtuosity, demanding decisive control of the high register, and are almost on par with the technical demands of the first violin part. Even so, despite being an inheritance and continuation of Boccherini’s legacy, Palomino’s style is highly personal. José Palomino was one of the most prominent figures on the Lisbon music scene of the second half of the 18th century. Paradoxically, he is also one of the most forgotten figures in the history of Spanish music of that period. Like many other Iberian composers and instrumentalists of the second half of the 18th century, Palomino remains largely unknown outside specialized circles. This is not only as a composer, but also as a violin virtuoso, occasional viola player, conductor, and precursor of the model of the musician who served royalty while simultaneously fulfilling commissions for the aristocracy, the Church, and theatrical productions.

In 2020, the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts and the Canarian Museum of Las Palmas jointly published a complete print edition of José Palomino’s string quintets with two viols. This initiative addressed the need to recover, study, and promote neglected repertoires from the Iberian heritage, aiming to provide a guide for accessible performances grounded in appropriate interpretive techniques. Following the modern premiere of the last three quintets in the collection in July 2021, El Afecto Ilustrado recorded the complete set of six quintets for the Lindoro label at the El Sauzal Auditorium on the island of Tenerife. This recording is intended as a valuable resource not only for performers wishing to explore the Iberian repertoire of the last third of the 18th century, but also for professionals in musicology and related disciplines, as well as music lovers and those interested in historically informed performance in general. The recovery of this repertoire has had a very positive impact on the Spanish musical environment, not only because of the freshness that the restoration of this type of heritage brings, but also because of the quality of the music itself.

TENERIFE AUDITORIUM CHAMBER CYCLE
DATE December 16 and 18, 2025
VENUE Chamber Room, Tenerife Auditorium, Av. Constitución 1, 38003 Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

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DIVIN ENFANT

Symphonies en quatuor sur les Noëls
Michel Corrette (1707–1795)

Michel Corrette, a French organist and composer, was born in Rouen in 1707 and died in Paris in 1795. In 1720, he left his hometown to continue his musical education, which had surely begun under his father, Gaspard Corrette. By 1726, at the age of twenty, he competed for the position of organist at the Church of La Madeleine in Paris. However, he was not awarded the post and earned his living in early eighteenth-century Paris as a music teacher. In 1727, he published his first collections of sonatas, written especially for the violin, flute, and hurdy-gurdy — all very fashionable instruments at the time. In 1728, he became one of the first French musicians to publish concertos for solo instruments following the model established by the Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi.

From 1733 onward, Corrette alternated as concertino in several orchestras in the Cité and, probably due to his connections with the circles of the so-called Opéra Comique, began composing his famous Concerts Comiques, based on popular tunes and usually intended as entertainments between theatrical acts. This collection of 25 pieces would be completed around 1773.

After becoming organist of Sainte-Marie du Temple, in 1737 he published his first organ book, followed by the second in 1750 and the third in 1756. Thus, he entered the service of the Parisian temple and received commissions from the French royal family, working for the Chevalier d’Orléans, the Prince of Conti, and the Duke d’Angoulême. In his first Livre des Noëls of 1741, he presented himself as the organist of the Jesuit House, at the Church of Saint-Louis, where music played an important role in the liturgy. Corrette would retain his post within the Jesuit Order until 1762, the year the Society of Jesus was expelled from France.

Nevertheless, despite the French Revolution of 1789, Corrette kept his position as organist at Sainte-Marie du Temple until 1791. Interestingly, he was also the author of the last organ book published in Paris under the Ancien Régime — his Pièces pour l’orgue dans un genre nouveau (1787). Michel Corrette was a highly prolific composer, and given the period in which he lived and worked, his output faithfully reflects the evolution of musical aesthetics and taste throughout the complex eighteenth century in France. While his early harpsichord works (1734) are close in style to the Couperin school, later compositions such as Les Amusements du Parnasse (composed between 1749 and 1772) or Divertissements pour clavecin ou pianoforte (1779) show a stronger inclination toward the galant style and at times clear Classical structures.

However, it should also be noted that Corrette was a strong advocate of the Italian style, a fact that is evident in the Symphonies de Noël that make up Divin Enfant. Though the work is a collection of French Christmas carols (Noëls) of the time, it is composed in a distinctly Italianate manner.

Although Michel Corrette’s output is vast, it would be unfair not to mention his role as a pedagogue. A prolific creator of method books for learning various instruments, his aim — in true Enlightenment spirit — was to codify and disseminate musical language among the educated public. His books enjoyed great popularity and were commonly found in major libraries. Corrette is, in short, one of those great composers whom time has unjustly overlooked. His remarkable compositional virtuosity and his fondness for popular melodies are reflected in Divin Enfant, creating a unique blend of French and Italian nuances — a collection that radiates the light and tenderness of the liturgical season it celebrates.

CICLO DE CONCIERTOS DEL MUSEO DEL PRADO
DATE 12 de Diciembre 2025
VENUE Museo del Prado, Retiro, 28014 Madrid

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IMAGINARIUM

Chimeras and Fantasies of the Baroque Imagination

Imaginarium explores the development of the so-called Stylus Phantasticus, which, after its birth in Italy, swept across the Old Continent in search of new forms of expression and timbral and formal experimentation.

BARROCO EN LA FUNDACIÓN 2025
DATE September 18, 2025
VENUE Auditorio Fundación Cajacanarias, Plaza del Patriotismo 1, 38002 Santa Cruz de Tenerife

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BRITANNIA

England – 1650

At the beginning of the 17th century, chamber music in England experienced a notable boom among the social elite, consolidating its own identity that reflected the transition from Elizabethan sobriety to the emerging Baroque expressiveness. In its early phase, English music was characterized by a search for sonorous intimacy, evidenced by the predominant use of instruments such as the harpsichord and consorts of viols, which cultivated a national style. However, beginning in the second half of the century, English composers began to assimilate continental influences, primarily Italian and French, which would shape English chamber music during this period. Henry Purcell, the greatest exponent of this transformation, synthesized these international trends into a unique compositional language, combining refined Gallic ornamentation with profound melodic and harmonic expressiveness rooted in Italy. At the same time, composers such as John Blow, Nicola Matteis, Giovanni Legrenzi, and Giovanni Battista Vitali played crucial roles in the process of stylistic adaptation and reconfiguration, particularly in relation to the evolution of vocal and theatrical music, the use of instrumental polyphony, and the introduction of new performance techniques for the violin. Thus, 17th-century English chamber music, by integrating and reworking European influences, gave rise to a distinctive, recognizable, and fully consolidated aesthetic within the European Baroque.

Conciertos de verano de la RACBA

DATE July 16, 2025

VENUE Real Academia Canaria de Bellas Artes de San Miguel Arcángel, Pl. Ireneo González, 1. 38002 Santa Cruz de Tenerife

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BRITANNIA

England – 1650

At the beginning of the 17th century, chamber music in England experienced a notable boom among the social elite, consolidating its own identity that reflected the transition from Elizabethan sobriety to the emerging Baroque expressiveness. In its early phase, English music was characterized by a search for sonorous intimacy, evidenced by the predominant use of instruments such as the harpsichord and consorts of viols, which cultivated a national style. However, beginning in the second half of the century, English composers began to assimilate continental influences, primarily Italian and French, which would shape English chamber music during this period. Henry Purcell, the greatest exponent of this transformation, synthesized these international trends into a unique compositional language, combining refined Gallic ornamentation with profound melodic and harmonic expressiveness rooted in Italy. At the same time, composers such as John Blow, Nicola Matteis, Giovanni Legrenzi, and Giovanni Battista Vitali played crucial roles in the process of stylistic adaptation and reconfiguration, particularly in relation to the evolution of vocal and theatrical music, the use of instrumental polyphony, and the introduction of new performance techniques for the violin. Thus, 17th-century English chamber music, by integrating and reworking European influences, gave rise to a distinctive, recognizable, and fully consolidated aesthetic within the European Baroque.

Ciclo Música Antigua en el Patio de la Orotava

DATE July 15, 2025

VENUE Casa de Colón, C/ Colón 1, 35001 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

BRITANNIA

England – 1650

At the beginning of the 17th century, chamber music in England experienced a notable boom among the social elite, consolidating its own identity that reflected the transition from Elizabethan sobriety to the emerging Baroque expressiveness. In its early phase, English music was characterized by a search for sonorous intimacy, evidenced by the predominant use of instruments such as the harpsichord and consorts of viols, which cultivated a national style. However, beginning in the second half of the century, English composers began to assimilate continental influences, primarily Italian and French, which would shape English chamber music during this period. Henry Purcell, the greatest exponent of this transformation, synthesized these international trends into a unique compositional language, combining refined Gallic ornamentation with profound melodic and harmonic expressiveness rooted in Italy. At the same time, composers such as John Blow, Nicola Matteis, Giovanni Legrenzi, and Giovanni Battista Vitali played crucial roles in the process of stylistic adaptation and reconfiguration, particularly in relation to the evolution of vocal and theatrical music, the use of instrumental polyphony, and the introduction of new performance techniques for the violin. Thus, 17th-century English chamber music, by integrating and reworking European influences, gave rise to a distinctive, recognizable, and fully consolidated aesthetic within the European Baroque.

XX Festival de Música de Cámara Villa de la Orotava
DATE July 14, 2025
VENUE San Agustín Church, C/ San Agustín, 2. 38300 La Orotava, Tenerife

IMAGINARIUM

Chimeras and Fantasies of the Baroque Imagination

Imaginarium explores the development of the so-called Stylus Phantasticus, which, after its birth in Italy, swept across the Old Continent in search of new forms of expression and timbral and formal experimentation.

LOS VERANOS DEL MUSEO DEL GRECO
DATE June 26, 2025
VENUE Museo del Greco, Paseo del Tránsito, s/n. 45002 Toledo

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PAST EVENTS

FLORENS CIVITAS

Olalla Alemán & El Afecto Ilustrado

The Venetian School, which reached its peak between the second half of the 16th century and the first third of the 17th century, brought together a series of composers and innovations in musical practice that enjoyed enormous fame throughout Europe, marking the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque musical period. The use of the polyphonic choir, polychorality, the development of the concertato style, the combination of voices and instruments in specific ways to achieve expressive contrasts of intense effectiveness, sound planes and distinct timbres, and chromatic experimentation, which distilled increasing expressiveness, were some of its most notable characteristics.

Florens civites represents a line that connects composers closely linked to the Most Serene Republic, uniting aesthetics and profiles that will undoubtedly define the course of musical creation in subsequent centuries.

CICLO DE CÁMARA DE LA SOCIEDAD FILARMÓNICA DE GRAN CANARIA

DATE May 14, 2025
LOCATION Auditorium of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, C. Juan de Quesada 30, 35001 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

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IMAGINARIUM

Chimeras and Fantasies of the Baroque Imagination

Imaginarium explores the development of the so-called Stylus Phantasticus, which, after its birth in Italy, swept across the Old Continent in search of new forms of expression and timbral and formal experimentation.

FESTIVAL IBF CANARIAS
DATE April 16, 2025
VENUE Auditorio Alfredo Kraus, Ctra. del Rincón, s/n, 35010 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas

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BAROQUE WORKSHOP

Sounds and Affects of the 17th and 18th Centuries

BARROCO Y BARROCOS II: TRAS LAS ARISTAS CULTURALES DE UNA ÉPOCA

DATE November 30, 2024
VENUE Museo del Prado, Paseo del Prado s/n, 28014, Madrid

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SUN OF THE SOUTH

Guitar Quintets by Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)

In ‘Sun of the South,’ El Afecto Ilustrado offers a fresh and colorful interpretation of the guitar quintets by Italian composer Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805). A faithful reflection of Madrid society in the late 18th century and of all the enchanting light that this chamber music collection contains, like a catalog.

Music in Spain, like other arts, looked toward Italy for political reasons, and the Italian influence remained constant until the end of the 18th century. The guitar quintets, dating from the last quarter of the century, are a fascinating part of his work and constitute a sample of unique sounds, imbued with a luminous and vital Iberian Enlightenment spirit.

The combination of the guitar with a classical quartet structure allows the solo instrument to alternate moments of brilliance with others of accompaniment, in which the writing, which combines lyricism and virtuosity in equal measure, demonstrates the composer’s thorough knowledge of the instrument. The harmony in the quintets is luminous and elegant, a typically Boccherinian trait, and alternates major moments of great festive significance with others in deeply melancholic minor keys, which, without being strictly romantic, already announce the imminent arrival of Sturm und Drang.

CICLO ANTIQVA TEATRO PÉREZ GALDÓS
DATE November 17, 2024
VENUE Teatro Pérez Galdós, Plaza de Stagno, 35002 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

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