Bach & Brouwer: Canciones

The curiosity of the countertenor Andreas Scholl, one of the most recompensed opera singers, is well known, with his taste for rare and precious musical items. We find him here with the lute player Edin Karamazov as the embodiment of an encounter between Havana and Leipzig, between contemporary Cuba and baroque Germany.

Navigating from the one to the other, the two musicians weave the fabric of a musical reverie in which Johann Sebastian Bach walks alongside the Cuban master Leo Brouwer, whose crossover works draw at once from folklore, creole roots, dance, the scholarly European tradition, works that echo in marvellous manner the chorales, the Cello Suite, indeed the English Folk Songs, arranged here by Brouwer himself and dedicated to the duet.

The poetic, intimate instrumentation, with an utterly limpid lute and the velvet tone-colour of Andreas Scholl, becomes the delicate setting for the hushed, modest expression of the different faces of love.