A signal moment in the arrival of Italian music on Spanish soil came in the summer of 1708. Antonio Caldara, finding his opportunities limited by the War of the Spanish Succession, headed off to Barcelona to take on a commission for an operatic work from Archduke Charles (Carlos III), who was preparing his own wedding festivities at the court he had established in order to contend for the Spanish throne.

For three centuries this serenata has, like much of Caldara’s hugely successful theatre music, been passed over. Here, however, Emilio Moreno and El Concierto Español relish the opportunity to gather together an outstanding quintet of soloists to lead this paean of praise to St Elisabeth and, by extension, to Archduke Charles’ future wife, Princess Elisabeth Christine of Wolfenbüttel.

With appropriate period stylishness, María Espada, Robin Blaze, Raquel Andueza, Marianne Beate Kielland and Agustín Prunell-Friend conjure up the splendour of early 18th century courtly musical culture – and, in many ways, the seeds for the enduring operatic passion of Barcelona – directed with elegance by Moreno and arising out of a concert performance given in Lérida, near Barcelona in Catalonia.

Recorded live, Auditori Enric Granados, November 2009.