Cantoría

Christmas under gunpowder: Spanish ensalada's Forget well-behaved little scenes with straw and oxen. In 16th-century Spain, Christmas sounded like an explosion of popular joy! Cantoría serves up the most delicious ensalada's for the occasion: polyphonic, mixed 'salads' in which languages, styles and melodies tumble together. Mateo Flecha lifted the genre to an unprecedented level: his pieces are full of theatrical effects, political allusions, and nods to popular culture. Wars against Turks, emperors, Lucifer and Christ: everything passes by in a swirling stream of sound and rhetoric. Fragments of superhits, panting rhythms, duelling voices: what begins with proper chastity ends in theatrical overdrive. With voices, vihuela, viola da gamba, percussion and organ, Cantoría transforms this Renaissance hit machine into a sparkling Christmas celebration with historical swagger. Programme: Music by M. Flecha, D. Ortiz, B. Cárceres and others.