American Music Guide, US

«Please don’t be deterred from getting this because of the weird cover art: two young men (depicted twice each) in ghoulish blue and red lighting. The music is unfamiliar, relaxed, and charming. The tunes and the contrapuntal dialog make easy sense. Both the archlute and theorbo have good bass and clearly-projecting treble. I’ve kept replaying this album when it ends. The pieces come from a manuscript collection by Filippo Dalla Casa (1737-c1811), who was an amateur archlutenist and a professional painter. As the booklet notes say, this is a compilation of music he enjoyed listening to and performing, and the last catalogued source of music for archlute&theobo. Almost everything here is credited to unknown composer, which could be as many as 11 different people. The two pieces with known composers are a three-movement Trio by Lodovico Fontanelli (c1682- 1748) and a three-movement Concerto by Giuseppi Vaccari (dates unknown). All of these pieces are played as duos for both players, except that Daniel Zapico plays two solos, and his twin brother Pablo plays one. Most of the pieces really are solos, but these performers have elaborated them with their own arrangements. These two excellent musicians are from Asturias, where the government gave them a grant to support this recording. Some of their ensembles include their older brother, the conductor and harpsichordist Aaron Zapico.»

American Music Guide, US
Bradley Lehman | Agosto 2020