Musica Temprana

Based in the Netherlands, the early music group Música Temprana explores Latin American Renaissance and Baroque styles, as well as their sources in Spain. Much of the music the group plays is freshly unearthed from manuscripts. Música Temprana was formed in 2001 by director, composer, guitarist, percussionist, singer, and researcher Adrián Rodríguez Van der Spoel. He began his career as an Argentine folk musician but later studied early music traditions at the Amsterdam Conservatory. He remains the artistic director of the group, which has a core of about eight members but may expand for choral works. Van der Spoel observes that to perform Latin American Baroque music according to European standards would make it too strict and academic; the repertory the group performs requires knowledge of Latin American folk traditions, and that he plays it as he would play Argentine traditional music. As the group's career developed, it has added Spanish works that bear on what colonists in the New World would have known and played to its repertory. Música Temprana has toured across Latin America, especially in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Ecuador. The group has appeared at festivals across Europe, including the Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, the Festival van Vlaanderen in Belgium, and the Mozart Festival in Rovereto, Italy. In 2008, Música Temprana made its recording debut on the EtCetera label with Avecillas Sonoras: Villancicos from 18th Century Latin America. Much of its performing and recording repertory depends on original research by Van der Spoel, drawing on manuscript sources such as the Codex Trujillo of Peru or incorporating reconstructed Baroque violins from Bolivia. The group has also presented staged versions of theatrical works like the Ensaladas of Mateo Flecha and the madrigal comedy Il Festino of Adriano Banchieri. Música Temprana has released albums on Cobra Records as well as EtCetera, and in 2021, the group moved to PentaTone Classics for the album Melancolía, featuring works depicting unrequited love, mourning, and apocalyptic texts.
© James Manheim /TiVo