“El ciego tañedor” or “the blind keyboardist”, Antonio de Cabezón was one of the most inspired masters of his day and a protégé at the court of King Philip II (whose favourite painting, reproduced on the cover of the booklet, came into his possession while Cabezón was with him in Brussels in 1555).

Keyboard music was attaining a status equal to vocal polyphony at this time, and Cabezón’s sophisticated Tientos are at the forefront of a rapid rise in a new intensity of expression. Where the Tientos relate to vocal styles, the Variations can frequently be traced to popular songs and dance tunes such as the Folía.

Glen Wilson studied at the Juilliard School before moving to Holland in 1971 as a student of Gustav Leonhardt. He was active in Dutch musical life for twenty years before moving to Bavaria as professor at the Music University of Würzburg. He has since conducted his edition of Monteverdi’s Ritorno di Ulisse in patria for the Netherlands Opera over sixty times on three continents.