Recorded in the Evangelische Brüdergemeinde, Neukölln, Berlin, July 2012.

During the Spanish foreign dominance over the kingdom of Naples in the 16th and 17th centuries, lively musical and cultural relationships were forged between Naples and Spain and the city at the foot of Vesuvius could count itself as a European cultural centre on an equal footing to London and Paris.

A Neapolitan delegation of virtuoso musicians and singers was invited to participate in the marriage celebrations of Philip II in Madrid (1543), among them the harpist Gian Leonardo, the 'new Orpheus' of this era. These musicians were members of the capella reale, the orchestra of the royal court of Naples. The first maestri di capella were Spaniards followed by Jean de Macque who was later joined by his pupils Giovanni Maria Trabaci und Ascanio Mayone. In the capella reale, harpists also found regular employment.

The musicians performed at the major musical focal points in Naples, primarily in the following locations: Palazzo Reale, the Gesualdo family home, Chiesa S. Annunziata, Oratorio di S. Filippo Neri and Tesoro di San Gennaro. The photographer and filmmaker Armin Linke documented these locations in beautiful photographs which appear in the cd booklet], during a trip to Naples in December 2012.

As a specialist in historical harp Margret Köll plays as soloist and as a continuo player in various ensembles: Il Giardino Armonico, Accademia Bizantina (Ottavio Dantone), Europa Galante (Fabio Biondi). She has performed chamber music with Luca Pianca, Enrico Onofri, Dimitri Sinkovsky, Riccardo Minasi and Vittorio Ghielmi including on the promotional tour for the CD 'Maria Malibran' with Cecilia Bartoli, and the CD and promotional tour of 'Lettere Amorose' with Magdalena Kozena.