Combine the artistry and brilliant virtuosity of countertenor Drew Minter and ARTEK/458 Strings with a program of vocal and instrumental jewels from 17th century Italy, and you have a recipe for a dynamic recording, bursting with musical fireworks, overflowing with emotion, and splashed with a multitude of colors.

The series ‘L’Oreille de…’ from Cypres and the Huelgas Ensemble, that began with "L’Oreille de Zurbarán" and "L’héritage de Petrus Alamire,” juxtaposes the music of a particular period and the creative world of a contemporaneous painter, scribe or explorer. What might he have listened to if he had had a transistor radio, a hifi system or the possibility of streaming on a computer? In conjunction with the exhibition: "Theodoor van Loon, a caravaggist between Rome and Brussels" in BOZAR Brussel, this album introduces the first Southern Netherlands Caravaggist between Rome and Brussels through the music of the seventeenth century. Paul Van Nevel has selected some emblematic pieces played in Italy, where van Loon used to live between 1602 and 1608, and in the musical chapel of Albert and Isabelle.

An extraordinary, constantly inventive composer, free of all constraints, like a new Gesualdo. After Monteverdi, here is the last revolutionary of the in- cendiary seconda prattica, in a programme exalting by turns profane love and sacred desire, performed by an outstanding cast of singers.

La Catena d Adone was first performed in 1626 and marked the arrival of opera in Rome. With all the characteristics of the genre, a pastoral tale in one prologue and five acts, it chronicles the tumultuous love lives of Adonis, Apollo, Venus, and Falsirena. The frivolous and sensual even erotic tone is placed in sharp contrast with Christian morality in a perfectly mastered Recitarcantando style supported by a wealth of instruments. Besides being a world premiere recording, the opera inaugurates the arrival of a very young conductor to the Alpha catalog. Nicolas Achten is also a director, singer, and player of theorbo, harpsichord, and harp, and follows the path set by great musical pioneers such as Vincent Dumestre and Pablo Valetti.