Pacific Spirit United Church
Huehuetenango: Music from 16th Century Guatemala
Works by: Juan Vasquez, Pedro de Escobar, Cristobal Morales
Artists: Jonatan Alvarado, tenor & Ariel Abramovich, vihuela
Argentine early music specialists Jonatan Alvarado and Ariel Abramovich explore a beautiful, mysterious musical manuscript compiled in northwest Guatemala in the late sixteenth century. Their program explores the repertoire through a dialogue with contemporary European collections, including the Cancionero de Upsala and the tablature collections by Pierre Attaignant, with special emphasis on pieces that are exclusive to the Guatemalan books.
Generously sponsored by Agnes Hohn.
PROGRAMME
Libro Primero
Virgen Madre de Dios
Introito: ‘Salve Sancta Parens’
Kyrie eleison
Pleni sunt de la Misa sine nomine
Antiphona Ad Magnificat: ‘Gloriose Virginis’
Magnificat 8 toni
Benedicamus Domino
Deo Gratias
Libro Segundo
Paratum cor meum (‘Le content est riche’) [Claudin de Sermissy]
Pater Noster
Hic solus [dolores nostros]
O bone Jesu [Juan de Anchieta]
O pulcra es (‘Quam pulchra es’) [Martin de Rivaflecha]
Cananea [Clamabat Autem mulier cananea] [Pedro de Escobar]
Libro Tercero
Salamanca [Amy soufrez] [Pierre Moulu]
¿Con qué la lavaré? ‘Morraleos’ [Juan Vasquez]
Mulier quit ploras [‘Puse mis amores en Fernandillo’] [Juan Vasquez]
Romance [De Antequera sale el moro]
Dame acojida en tu hato
Click here to read the programme notes by Jonatan Alvarado.
Jonatan Alvarado, tenor
Jonatan Alvarado is a singer and player of (very) old songs, be them contained by medieval and renaissance manuscripts scattered all over the world, or found in the oral traditions of Europe and the Americas. He took his first musical steps in the guitar class at the conservatory and in the municipal choirs of Mercedes, Buenos Aires, conducted by Amalia Guaragna. He then studied Orchestral Conducting, Choral Conducting and Composition at the National University of La Plata. In 2011 he moved to the Netherlands, where he graduated with honors in singing and lute at the Amsterdam Conservatory, in the classes of Xenia Meijer and Fred Jacobs respectively. His specialization in medieval and renaissance repertoire was developed under the guidance of Dr. Rebecca Stewart.
He is musical director and co-founder – together with the Portuguese Nuno Atalaia – of the ensemble Seconda Pratica, which specializes in the performance of Ibero-American music from the 15th to the 17th centuries. He is also a member of Da Tempera Velha, Sollazo Ensemble and Concerto di Margheritta. He collaborates regularly with lutenist Ariel Abramovich and guitarists Jessica Denys and Samuel Diz, as well as with the ensembles Armonía Concertada and ClubMédieval.
His first solo CD, “Pajarillos Fugitivos” (Ayros 2018) was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards in the category of Best Early Music Vocal Album. He has performed in the most important festivals and stages of his speciality, from Boston to Utrecht, from the Bimhuis in Amsterdam and the Konzerthaus in Vienna to the Minatomirai Hall in Yokohama.
Jonatan Alvarado’s eclectic musical restlessness extends his artistic activity to completely disparate projects, always under the common denominator of working from historically informed sources and the use of historical instruments, as in the recovery of the unpublished songbooks of the Spanish Republican exile, the interpretation of tango and Argentine song from the early 20th century in his second solo album “Voces de Bronce” (TRPTK, 2023), or the recovery of the medieval musical archive of the Cathedral of Tui.
Ariel Abramovich, vihuela
Dazzled by a fantasy by Luys de Narváez, Ariel Abramovich decided – being still a teenager – to dedicate exclusively to the lute and vihuela repertoire of the 16th century, a decision he has maintained to this day without any major regrets. In 1996 he moved to Switzerland to study with his teacher and mentor, Hopkinson Smith, at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Later, he will visit Eugène Ferré in France, who will offer him a very special view of the instrument and its music.
In 1998, together with José Hernández-Pastor, he founded the duo “El Cortesano”, a musical project dedicated to the repertoire of the Spanish vihuelistas. In 2008 he undertook another duo project with the British tenor John Potter, revisiting the literature of English “Lute songs”. In 2011, they founded – together with Anna Maria Friman and Jacob Heringman – “Alternative History”. They recorded for ECM a first album, “Secret History”, released in 2017. In 2015 ECM released the quartet’s second recording, “Amores Pasados,” for which musicians such as Tony Banks (Genesis), Sting or John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) contributed with unpublished works and/or written especially for this project.
He founded in 2013, together with soprano María Cristina Kiehr, the duo “Armonía Concertada”, dedicated to Italian and Iberian literature for voice and plucked strings of the 16th century. Together with Jacob Heringman – also a Renaissance specialist – she shares a project dedicated to intabulations for lutes and vihuelas. Together they recorded in 2014 the album “Cifras Imaginarias”, published in 2017, released by Arcana.
He is a member of the ensemble “Da Tempera Velha”, dedicated to Medieval and early Renaissance Castilian repertoire. She also shares, at present, duo projects with the French soprano Perrine Devillers and the Argentine tenor Jonatan Alvarado.
