Love, drama and betrayal under the Sicilian sun: this ‘pasticcio’ of folk melodies and music by ‘learned’ composers was born of the love of Leonardo García Alarcón and the singers and musicians of the Cappella Mediterranea for Calabrian, Sicilian and Neapolitan songs dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We hear music by Alessandro Scarlatti and Sigismondo d’India, both born in Palermo, as well as works from the extraordinarily rich collection of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Malta (notably by Vincenzo Tozzi). Leonardo García Alarcón even composed a five-part fugue on La canzone di Cecilia , associated with the heroine of the drama. The music was arranged by Quito Gato. This tribute to southern Italy by Cappella Mediterranea has triumphed on stage for years; now this recording immortalises it.

Given that not one of the Masses by Jacques Arcadelt was included in our boxed set that revealed his immense musical personality to the world, we now remedy this situation with an indispensable addition. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon chose the Missa Noe Noe, which is presented here in the context of the Christmas liturgy. We have also included motets not only by Arcadelt but also by Josquin Desprez, as he was the great model for musicians of his generation. The recording ends resoundingly with Josquin's imposing Benedicta es coelorum regina for six voices, although in an expanded version for twelve voices by Jean Guyot de Chatelet (1512 - 1588): another Walloon composer to be discovered!

The story of the incredible success of La Finta Pazza in Venice in 1641 is often attributed to the presence of the diva Anna Renzi and to Torelli’s incredible stage machinery. However, a show with an excellent singer and an impressive machinery is nothing without remarkable music. As soon as I discovered this score, which has almost never been performed recently, I immediately understood the surprising quality of this music and why it had such an impact on young King Louis XIV.

This innovative programme, created at Ambronay Festival in 2009 by the Argentine Leonardo García Alarcón chief sees musicians alternate between baroque and modern instruments to interpret the most beautiful pages of Astor Piazzólla (Milonga del Angel, Ballada para un loco) and Claudio Monteverdi (Lamento della ninfa, Orfeo). During the extensive live tour of this project in 2009, members of the audience pointed out that in the end they didn't know where Monteverdi stopped and Piazzolla began.

Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is naturally an iconic work for Leonardo García Alarcón. The Argentinian conductor has performed and matured his interpretation of Monteverdi’s masterpiece throughout his life. Together with his group of soloists, the Namur Chamber Choir and the Cappella Mediterranea ensemble, he now presents his vision of L’Orfeo: Monteverdi’s opera is as much the apotheosis of the Renaissance as a testimony to the nascent Baroque style.