Recorded in the awe-inspiring acoustics of Salamanca’s Old Cathedral, Beatae Mariae offers a luminous journey into the heart of Spain’s sacred musical tradition. This double album, released under Cathedralis, the label of Salamanca Cathedral, continues the label’s mission to preserve and promote the musical heritage of its own archive and those of other Spanish cathedrals.

CD 1, In Conceptione Beata Maria Virginis. Ad Vesperas, recreates the Vespers of the Immaculate Conception as sung in 16th-century Salamanca. Drawing on the cathedral’s own cantorales, Schola Antiqua interweaves the plainchant of the liturgy with alternatim organ verses by Antonio de Cabezón, the great master of Renaissance Iberian keyboard music.

CD 2, Tesoros medievales olvidados, presents world-premiere recordings from the Repertorium Project, a groundbreaking European research initiative that has recovered long-forgotten medieval chants preserved in the archives of the Abbey of Solesmes. These rediscovered treasures – ancient tropes, sequences, and farced epistles – span the 11th to 13th centuries, offering a rare glimpse into the richness and diversity of early Western liturgical music.

Under the direction of Juan Carlos Asensio, one of the leading scholars and interpreters of Gregorian and Hispanic chant, and featuring Javier Artigas on the cathedral’s organ, this recording unites scholarship and artistry in a work of exceptional beauty and historical resonance.

Meticulously researched, sonically pure, and spiritually profound, Beatae Mariae stands as a testament to Cathedralis’s dedication to bringing the sacred soundscape of Spain’s cathedrals back to life.