A disc dedicated to a master of the ‘New World’. Padilla was a composer of ‘New Spain’ - the country we now call Mexico. The music of this period is as varied as it is distinctive, with a harmonic richness and colour that is found nowhere else.

A disc dedicated to a master of the ‘New World’. Padilla was a composer of ‘New Spain’ - the country we now call Mexico. Whilst born in Malaga in the late 1500s he emigrated to Puebla, Mexico in 1620 to compose music in the ‘New World’.

‘Streams of tears’ reflects not only the penitential nature of this programme, the tears shed for Christ on the cross, but also that period in history known as the ‘Siglo de Oro’, when Spain and Portugal were masters of the great ocean and in the process of discovering and developing new lands in the Americas and Padilla is symbolic of this age. This was a time when the church had money as well as a great appreciation of art in the service of the church not only in Europe but in the new cathedrals of Mexico.

The music of this period is as varied as it is distinctive, with a harmonic richness and colour that is found nowhere else.