This is a delightful disc and gives a great insight into how these works – and others like them – were performed and appreciated throughout Latin America. It is sure to be of appeal to anyone with an interest in the music of the baroque – as well as those with a desire to learn more about the development of the genre outside Europe.

Mexican Baroque Orchestra was formed by Miguel Lawrence in 2009, under private sponsorship, to play the Concertos “Pensieri Adriarmonici” by Venetian composer Giacomo Facco, which were discovered in 1961 inside the library of “Colegio de las Vizcaínas”, a colonial building founded in México City in 1734. For this purpose, the Mexican Baroque Orchestra uses Mexican colonial instruments like the vihuela and the guitarrón to interpret the basso continuo of baroque music in a style according to 18th century practice in Mexico.

The orchestra uses today’s mariachi vihuela and guitarrón to play the essential accompaniment to most baroque music known as basso continuo, which composers used not to write down because, according to common period practice, composers expected performers to play it according to their own taste, on any particular instrument they chose, following the bass line, very much like we do today in jazz and popular music. The mariachi vihuela and guitarrón were designed in Mexico during the 17th century, based upon some of the European instruments most commonly used to play basso continuo during the baroque period, such as the lute, archlute, theorbo, European vihuela and baroque guitar.