When the music is like a trip to the old second-hand dealer.

CD Review ”In flagrante delicto”, Peter Navarro-Alonso
Ensemble Stralo, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier, conductor
Released: October 31, 2025, Label: OUR Recordings

In the old days, the really old days during the time of the previous monarch, there was a junk shop on my youth’s main street, the old-fashioned kind where you could both make excellent bargains and also throw away your money on absolute junk for no worldly benefit whatsoever.
It was not a very large shop, but it contained a completely fascinating world that you could explore and get something different out of every time. I bought my first guitar amplifier here, and if I had been looking for jewelry or ceramics, there would certainly have been help to be found in this Eldorado. The fascinating thing about the place was precisely that you could never know exactly what kind of experience awaited you when you went inside, only that it would be a diverse one that offered surprises every time.
Peter Navarro-Alonso’s work ‘In Flagrante Delicto’, appears precisely as one of those kinds of experiences. The work is a completely fascinating collage of widely different, seemingly incompatible influences, and therefore it is possible to undertake many different journeys through it with completely different focal points and completely different yields. Is the work total? Yes! Is it non-tonal? Yes! (The term atonal carries too many strictly serial connotations to really be used in this context.) Is it a vocal work, is it a piece of instrumental chamber music, is it written based on already existing music, is it completely originally newly composed? The answer is constantly ‘yes’. ‘In Flagrante Delicto’ is all of it, and the listener can choose their own angle, their own path, at any time.

Having said that, it is probably already quite clear that what we have here is not light entertainment for the evening coffee. In a way, it is quite a demanding work, both for the listener and, I suspect, for the performers. The mood is quite somber for much of the way; this is because Navarro-Alonso has chosen to explore the music of Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa in this work. Gesualdo was a nobleman who, in 1590, caught his first wife and her lover precisely ‘in flagrante delicto’, red-handed. He was not very pleased with this, so he immediately murdered both of them, either by his own hand or with the help of servants. There was no shortage of testimonies about the atrocities with which Gesualdo accompanied this wicked deed, but nonetheless, he was shortly thereafter acquitted in court, which did not find that he had committed a criminal act! However, he lived the rest of his life with deep depression, and for example, he had hired a servant whose sole duty was to beat and punish him. These psychological disturbances naturally manifested themselves in his music and the texts, most of which he wrote himself. The influence on Navarro-Alonso’s work is clear, this is no fun and games.

Several of Gesualdo's works form the basis for ‘In Flagrante Delicto,’ but they have been rearranged, fragmented, and added to in a very fascinating way. It is ‘music upon music’,that is, music written under inspiration of and with partial use of earlier compositions in a collage-like technique, which, for example, a composer like Karl Aage Rasmussen has widely cultivated before.

The performance on this CD is absolutely top-notch. Paul Hillier’s ‘Theatre of Voices’ and the quartet Ensemble Stralo, consisting of Radi Åstrand Radev on oboe, Christina Åstrand on violin, Theresa Åstrand Radev on cello, and Per Salo on piano, deliver a performance that one could hardly imagine better. Sonically and intonation-wise, it is, as they say, spot on, and it is possible that another team could arrive at a different result, but this is in any case an outstanding documentation of this, dare I say it?, masterpiece, with which the multi-talented organist, composer, and saxophonist Peter Navarro-Alonso places himself extraordinarily strongly in the Danish music landscape, well aided by Preben Iwan’s excellent recording. This is a CD that can be highly recommended to anyone who is up for musical experiences out of the ordinary.
Klassisk Bureau, (DK) Organ professor emeritus Ulrik Spang-Hansen, Klassisk Bureau, (DK) November 18. 2025

Original Danish text

Når musikken er som en tur hos den gamle marskandiser

”In flagrante delicto”, Peter Navarro-Alonso
Ensemble Stralo, Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier, dirigent
Udgivet: 31. oktober 2025, Forlag: OUR Recordings

I gamle dage, rigtig gamle dage i den forrige monarks tid, lå der på min ungdoms hovedgade en marskandiserforretning af den gammeldags slags, hvor man både kunne gøre fornemme kup og også smide sine penge ud til absolut ingen verdens nytte på det argeste bras.

Det var en ikke særlig stor butik, der imidlertid rummede en gennemfascinerende verden, som man kunne gå på opdagelse i og få noget forskelligt ud af hver gang. Her købte jeg min første guitarforstærker, og havde jeg været ude efter smykker eller keramik, ville der såmænd også have været hjælp at hente i dette eldorado. Det fascinerende ved stedet var netop, at man aldrig kunne vide præcis, hvilken oplevelse der ventede, når man gik derind, kun at det var en mangfoldig en, der bød på overraskelser hver gang.

Peter Navarro-Alonsos værk ’In Flagrante Delicto’ fremstår netop som en af den slags oplevelser. Værket er en gennemfascinerende kollage af vidt forskellige tilsyneladende uforenelige påvirkninger, og derfor lader det sig gøre at foretage mange forskellige rejser igennem det med helt forskellige fokuspunkter og helt forskellige udbytter. Er værket tonalt? Ja! Er det ikke-tonalt? Ja! (Udtrykket atonalt bærer for mange stramt serielle konnotationer med sig til rigtig at kunne bruges i denne sammenhæng.) Er det et vokalværk, er det et stykke instrumental kammermusik, er det skrevet på grundlag af allerede eksisterende musik, er det helt originalt nykomponeret? Svaret er bestandigt ’ja’. ’In Flagrante Delicto’ er det hele, og tilhøreren kan til hver en tid vælge sin egen vinkel, sin egen vej.

Når det er sagt, så står det formentlig allerede ganske klart, at det ikke er uforpligtende underholdning til aftenkaffen, vi har her. Det er på sin vis et ganske krævende værk, både for tilhøreren og, har jeg mistanke om, for de udførende. Stemningen er langt hen ad vejen ganske dyster; det hænger sammen med, at Navarro-Alonso har valgt at udforske renæssance-komponisten Carlo Gesualdo da Venosas musik i dette værk. Gesualdo var en adelsmand, som i 1590 pågreb sin første kone og dennes elsker netop ’in flagrante delicto’, på fersk gerning. Det var han ikke særlig tilfreds med, så han myrdede sporenstregs dem begge, enten ved egen hånd eller ved hjælp af tjenestefolk. Det skortede ikke på vidneudsagn om de grusomheder, som Gesualdo ledsagede denne udåd med, men ikke desto mindre blev han kort efter frikendt ved retten, som ikke fandt, at han havde begået en kriminel handling! Imidlertid levede han resten af sit liv med dyb depression, og han havde f.eks. ansat en tjener, hvis eneste embedspligt det var at slå og straffe ham. Disse psykiske forstyrrelser gav sig naturligt nok udslag i hans musik og de tekster, som han selv skrev hovedparten af. Afsmitningen på Navarro-Alonsos værker er klar, det er ikke skæg og ballade, dette her.

Flere af Gesualdos værker er grundlag for ’In Flagrante Delicto’, men der er møbleret om, fragmenteret og tilføjet på en meget fascinerende måde. Det er ’musik på musik’, altså musik skrevet under inspiration af og med delvis anvendelse af tidligere kompositioner i en kollageagtig teknik, som f.eks tidligere en komponist som Karl Aage Rasmussen har dyrket det i vidt omfang.

Udførelsen på denne cd er helt i top. Paul Hilliers ’Theatre of Voices’ og kvartetten Ensemble Stralo bestående af Radi Åstrand Radev på obo, Christina Åstrand på violin, Theresa Åstrand Radev, cello og Per Salo, klaver, præsterer en udførelse, som man vel vanskeligt kunne forestille sig bedre. Klangligt og intonationsmæssigt sidder det, som man siger, i skabet, og det er muligt, at et andet hold ville kunne nå frem til et anderledes resultat, men dette er i hvert fald en fremragende dokumentation af dette – tør jeg sige det? – storværk, hvormed den multiuddannede organist, komponist og saxofonist Peter Navarro-Alonso placerer sig overordentlig stærkt i det danske musiklandskab, godt hjulpet på vej af Preben Iwans fremragende optagelse. Dette er en cd, som meget stærkt kan anbefales enhver, der har mod på musikalske oplevelser ud over det sædvanlige.