Search - Capella, Los Angeles Chamber Singers, cnd. Rutenberg :: Padilla: Sun of Justice

"Particularly lovely...very appealing." - EARLY MUSIC AMERICA "Warm, involving, fresh...and unaffected." - AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, Maestro de Capilla at Puebla Cathedral, presided over the most important center of music production in the New World during the mid-seventeenth century. His sacred works, almost all for double choir, show him to be a masterful composer, and were preserved by order of the church in the years leading up to Padilla?s death in 1664. All the works on this disc are for double choir of eight voices and represent the height of musical pageantry as it was experienced at Puebla. They are recorded here for the first time! Cappella has championed the music of Padilla for over a decade and gave the modern North American premieres of these works during their last two concert seasons. They also presented a yearlong residency on the music of Padilla at the University of California, Riverside. Cappella was founded in 1993 as Los Angeles Chamber Singers? early music ensemble. Together, they form L.A.?s premier chamber choirs. The works recorded here complement ! Cappella?s effort to document this repertoire in historically-informed performances, begun with Music of the Mexican Baroque. The recording was made in the near-perfect acoustics of Mary Chapel on the Brentwood campus of Mount St. Mary?s College and was produced by the same team that brought you the best-selling Grammy®-nominated Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna. Padilla?s own motet Ave Regina caelorum forms the basis for his parody mass. The psalm settings share the same virtuosic approach as the mass; the remaining two works are brief responds. The album?s subtitle, Sun of Justice, is drawn from Felix namque?s refrain and refers to themes of enlightenment and judgment carried in many of the texts.