The period known today as Siglo de Oro (the Golden Century) is one of the richest eras in the history of European culture. The fact that it is a transnational Iberian phenomenon is, however, largely overlooked today. Portugal and Spain made up a single cultural space during the better part of the 16th and 17th Centuries. This cultural unity resiliently endured throughout changing political contexts, from well before the union of the two crowns under the Habsburgs (1581-1640) to the war of Portuguese independence (1640-1668). For nearly a century and a half, scores, musicians, texts, poets, actors, and playwrights circulated unhindered and intensively within the Iberian Peninsula, generating a unique era of cultural production and flow.
To illustrate this cultural richness and proximity between the two countries, we have prepared a programme consisting of works from two of the most important centres of musical production of the time: the Cathedral of Valladolid (Spain) and the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra (Portugal). The recovery, performance and dissemination of this music is of enormous importance, filling an important void not only in today’s predominant narratives of Western music history but also in the canon of concert hall repertoire. Rising to the highest musical and poetic standards, the music of Valldolid and Coimbra stands on a par with the best music composed elsewhere in Europe at the time. It more than deserves a stage where it may display its quality, beauty and unabating power to move the listener, even though almost 400 years have passed since it was last heard.