This is the third installment in Hyperion’s Latin American Baroque music series, and essentially features music by Juan de Araujo (1648-1712), one of the greatest composers of his generation who was born in Spain and immigrated to South America along with his parents. He served as the organist of the Lima Cathedral and finished his life in that same position in Sucre, Bolivia. There are ten pieces on this recording by this distinguished composer, and one by Diego Jose de Salazar.
Araujo was equally at home in the villancico style as well as in liturgical music, and while he did not compose that much of the latter, the texts to some of the more popular style pieces reflect religious concerns, as was often the case in the Baroque of any country. The one liturgical work here is the Dixit Dominus, a through-composed nine-minute piece that shows great skill and technique. Interspersed though this recording are four parts of the “Hanacpachap cussicuinin” (“The bliss of heaven”), considered the oldest printed polyphony in the Americas (1631), and is a Christian hymn to the Virgin Mary, written in Quechua and set in four voices in Sapphic verse meant to be sung while in procession. It is a rather spiky piece for the time and quiet colorful.
This is an interesting series, and while I cannot recommend it generally (being a very specific program) it will certainly make for a cherished acquisition for those who specialize in this period, and a definite addition to any Baroque library in need of fresh blood. Hyperion has fashioned excellent surround sound – particularly effective in this music, and Ex Cathedra certainly lives up to their name in these performances.
— Steven Ritter
