In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Coro Cervantes

Mixed Choral Chorus from Buckinghamshire, UK, England.

Coro Cervantes is a unique professional chamber choir. Through its performances and recordings it aims to bring the music of Iberia and Latin America to audiences everywhere.

Founded by its director Carlos Fernandez Aransay under the auspices of the Instituto Cervantes in London, Coro Cervantes made its first public appearance at the Spanish Embassy in 1996. It has since performed at London venues including St. James Smith Square, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and gave its sold-out 10th anniversary concert at the Wigmore Hall. In 2009 we performed the inaugural concert of the National Gallery exhibition The Sacred made Real, and we have started 2010 with a concert in Madrid, part of the Sacred Art Festival.

As a result of historically informed programming, Coro Cervantes has taken part in festivals and celebrations in the UK at such diverse venues as Shakespeares Globe Theatre, the Venezuelan Embassy, the Hackney Empire and collaborating with the National Gallerys El Greco exhibition. Further concerts in Winchester, Manchester, Leeds, Peterborough and Oxford have presented music for Philip II of Spain, Federico Garcia Lorca, Santiago de Compostela, Catherine of Aragon, The Habsburgs and El Greco. Concert engagements outside the UK have taken Coro Cervantes to Mexico, Spain, and to the Festival of Latin American culture in Moscow. Its repertoire includes works sung in Spanish (Castilian), Quechua (the Inca language), Nahuatl (the Aztec language), Mediaeval Galician, Catalan, Basque, and more. Coro Cervantes has a concert repertoire spanning a wide variety of sacred and secular music, from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the 19th and 20th Centuries. On CD it has recorded to critical acclaim. The first album, O Crux, a survey of 19th Century Spanish church music by Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla and others includes 12 world premiere recordings. It was chosen by the Gramophone Magazine's critics as one of the discs of the year. Their next disc, Oratio, 20th Century music from Spain and Latin America, was awarded 5-stars by BBC Music Magazine. It includes Ginastera's Lamentations and 10 world premiere recordings. In 2008, to celebrate the 75th birthday of one of Spains most distinguished contemporary composers, Anton Garcia Abril, Coro Cervantes was chosen to record his choral music in a 12 disc boxed-set dedicated to all his music. They were joined by the London Symphony Orchestra Strings, soprano Maria Oran, cellist Asier Polo and organist Charles Matthews. In 2009 we released our first recording for Signum Records, called Yanomami, a disc of 20th Century music for choir and guitar, with Brazilian guitarist Fabio Zanon to coincide with the 70th birthday of Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre, whose piece gives the album its title. Our latest disc is "Espana!", a showcase of music from Spain.

Discography

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Coro Cervantes : Espana

Review: Coro Cervantes is the only U.K. choir dedicated to the classical music of the Iberan Peninsula and Latin America. It was founded in 1995 by Carlos Aransay, under the auspices of the Instituto Cervantes in London. Its repertoire spans a wide variety of music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the 21st Century, with a special emphasis on Romantic Music. Coro Cervantes often performs with distinguished solists and instrumentalists and contributes to the international propagation of Hispanic choral music through its performances, recordings and research. Its repertoire includes works sung in Latin, Spainsh (Castilian). Quechua (language of the Incas), Nahuatl (language of the Aztecs), Mediaeval Galician, Catalan, Basque and even in English.

Songlist: En Aranjuez con tu amor, Xivarri, Aurtxoa Sehaskan, El Vito, Al pano fino, Volar, Negra sombra, Ondi jueron?, Ton pare non te nas, El cant dels ocells, Riverana, Esta tierra, Nana, Soy de Mieres, El gavilan, Arrorro, La tarara riojana, Adios, Granada, Epitafio de Don Quijote, Balada de Mallorca

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Coro Cervantes : O Crux - Spanish Choral Music

Review: The cover of O Crux suggests a programme of Spanish choral music from the age of Victoria. But no, it's actually a series of a cappella sacred music written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Albeniz, Granados, Manuel de Falla and Fernando Sor as we have never heard them before: caught up in the mystery of religion and drawing imaginatively, and often very audibly, on the styles of their illustrious ancestors. The first piece on the CD, a psalm from the "Office for the Dead" by Albeniz, is slow, predominantly chordal and sombre and sets the mood beautifully. One of the best pieces on the disc is the "Salve" by Ledesma, an organist from Aragon. The "Salutaris by Vives" and is almost operatic; after a soprano solo the full choir enters for the repetition of the text. The setting by Arriaga, who died aged only 20 in 1826, is much gentler - one can only wonder what the boy may have produced had he lived longer. Sor's "O Crux" has a finely melodic soprano line, and the two pieces by Eslava are simple and effective, "Bone Pastor" being a rare work here in triple time. The two pieces by Barbieri both have some highly dramatic word-painting, here rendered with precision by the choir. "L'herba de l'amor" by Granados has a nicely intonated soprano solo, (the text is sung in Catalan), leading to a gradual build up of voices. In similar vein is the build up in "Qui manducat" by de Monasterio. Vicente Goicoechea's "Christe Factus" est is highly chromatic.

Songlist: Salmo Vl del Oficio de difuntos, Salve Regina, Invocatio ad Individuam Trinitatem, Christus Factus est, O Salutaris, O Crux, Salve montserratina, O Sacrum Convivium, A solis ortus, Liberame Domine, Ave Maria, Versa est in luctum, Salve Regina, O gloriosa Virginum, O salutaris, L'herba de l'amor, Qui manducat meam carnem, Salve en el mar

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