Dutch classical music site Opus Klassiek has praised Cristina Prats Costa’s Spiritillo Mediterraneo, with critic Aart van der Wal writing that the level of playing is extremely high, the collaboration between the musicians equally exemplary, and the sunny soundscape mouth-watering.
The review draws a striking comparison between Prats Costa and Austrian lutenist and conductor Christina Pluhar, noting that both artists share a liveliness, sensuality, and communicative power rooted in complete instrumental mastery, even as Prats Costa remains closer to historical performance practice than Pluhar’s more experimental approach with L’Arpeggiata.
Van der Wal highlights Prats Costa’s own arrangements of Spanish works, including Españoleta, Seguidillas, and Fandango, as the album’s most personal thread, drawing on the violinist’s Ibiza upbringing and its traditions of castanets, drums, and folk rhythm. The review frames the album’s guiding spirit, or “spiritillo,” as the interplay between formal rigor and improvisational freedom that runs throughout the recording.
Spiritillo Mediterraneo is out now on PENTATONE.