Total Baroque Magazine has published an in-depth interview with Spanish violinist Cristina Prats Costa on her debut solo album, Spiritillo Mediterraneo, describing it as a theatre of invention, where ornamentation becomes storytelling.
In the interview, Prats Costa explains how growing up in Ibiza shaped her view of the Mediterranean as a meeting place rather than a border, guiding her selection of works by Falconieri, Matteis, Biber, Rebel, and Vivaldi alongside her own arrangements of Spanish repertoire by Murcia, Sanz, and Nebra. She discusses the album’s title, drawn from Falconieri’s Il Spiritillo Brando, describing the “spiritillo” as the creative spark that allows the music to come alive beyond what is written on the page.
Prats Costa also speaks about her doctoral research into Baroque ornamentation and improvisation, and reflects on recording Matteis’s intimate Preludio in A Minor alone with just her violin and the resonance of the church.
Read the full interview on Total Baroque’s website.
Spiritillo Mediterraneo is out now on PENTATONE.
