Castel: String Trios

Fortunately, the image of 18th-century Spanish music as a wasteland with little of interest to offer the modern listener is gradually being left behind. This bleak picture was drawn on the basis of insufficient knowledge as well as some deeply rooted prejudices about the Age of Enlightenment in Spain, which was judged by some as alien and devoid of personality, and by others as a project lacking in vitality and a failure. In recent years, both performers and scholars have joined forces to paint a more positive picture of the music of this period. One of the composers whose work deserves not to be forgotten is José Castel. Born in Tudela (Navarra) in November 1737, he received the typical training of a Spanish chapel master of the Ancien Régime. Castel was a competent and versatile composer who cultivated the most important musical genres of his time, from liturgical music to stage and symphonic music. His sacred compositions—masses, psalms, misereres, and lamentations, as well as cantatas and villancicos—are perhaps the least explored of his works, although they were highly valued in his time, as evidenced by the fact that they are widely distributed in various Spanish and American archives. Following a common practice at the time in printed chamber music collections, Castel wrote five trios in major keys and composed only one, Trio IV, in a minor key. The trios are characterized by a great formal and stylistic variety, typical of a composer who was well-versed in different musical genres. François Lesure, a great specialist in the history of Parisian music publishing, dates the print to around 1785, a date that we can accept at least approximately. The only known copy of the print is kept in the French National Library. In short, this first recording of the trios for two violins and bass by José Castel shows us a composer of great inventiveness and versatility, from whom we can expect interesting surprises in the future.