Jordi Savall - Gilles Binchois: Christophorus Columbus / Paraisos Perdidos (2006) [SACD]

The aim of Paraísos Perdidos (Lost Paradises) is to give the literature, history and music of ancient Hesperia and the New World the recognition that they deserve. Keenly aware of the gulf of more than five hundred years which separates us from those remote times, we believe that the beauty and vitality of the music they have bequeathed to us have the power to move today's audiences, in the same way that the poetic quality and expressive power of the texts recited in the programme movingly bring the dramatic events they evoke back into focus.
We are also mindful of the fact that, despite the timeless artistic dimension of these various musical traditions, the instruments, individual forms and sounds associated with them - indeed, everything that goes to make up their characteristic styles, inevitably bears the imprint of the age in which they were created. We have therefore opted for appropriate historical accuracy in vocal and instrumental performance, enhanced by the corresponding creative imagination for which the vocalists and instrumentalists of the ensembles Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, as well as the soloists specialising in Oriental musical traditions and in the ancient instruments (Amerindian flutes) of the New World, are justly famous. - Jordi Savall
Tracks:
Disc: 1
I Ancient Prophecies and Evocations
1. Introduction: Pierre Hamon (double flute),Pedro Estavan (percussion)
2. Invocation: Chorus: "Tethysque novos detegat orbes " (music- Binchois)
3. Evocation 1 Medea: "Nunc iam cessit pontus et omnes patitur leges"
4. Invocation: Chorus: "Tethysque novos detegat orbes"
5. Evocation 2: Medea: "Terminus omnis motus et urbes"
6. Invocation: Chorus: "Tethysque novos detegat orbes"
7. Evocation 3: Medea: Venient annis saecula seris
8. Reading: "Venient annis saecuala seris"
9. Invocation: Chorus: "Tethysque novos detegat orbes"
10. Reading: "Vendran los tardos años del mundo . . . "
1408 Reign of the Nasrid emir Yusuf III
11. Music: Hymn Sufi (instrumental improvisation) (Santur &Percussion)
12. Reading: "Description of the beautiful sights of Granada" - Ibn
13. Music: Mowachah Billadi askara min aadbi Llama (Al-Andalus)
II Conquests and the birth of Columbus
1410 (September) Prince Ferdinand's army conquers Antequera
14. Ancient Romance: El Moro de Antequera (Sephardic song)
15. Reading: "Having reached Antquera" Chronicle of Kings of Castille, Ch.
16. Music: Zappay (instrumental) CMM 20
1443 (February) Alfonso V the Magnanimous enters Naples
17. Music: Colinetto (instrumental) CMM 22Reading: "Here I shall relate the
18. Villota: Dindirindin - Anonymous CMM 127
1451 (October) Christopher Columbus is born
19. Reading: "Seeing as how his forefathers were of the royal blood of
20. Strambotto: O tempo bono - Anonymous CMM 132
III New Routes and Grand Project
1474 (25 June) Letter from the Florentine physician Toscanelli to Prince Juan
21. Music: voca la galiera (instrumental) Anonymous CMM 18 Reading: " A
22. Basse Dance: Mappa mundi(Kyrie of the Mass) - Johannes Cornago
1480 Shipwreck off Cape St Vincent
23. Music: Chiave, chiave (instrumental)- Anonymous CMM 131 Reading:
1485 Columbus is married during his time in Portugal
24. Ancient song (s. XI) Reading: "Finding himself near Lisbon..."
25. Villancico: Meis olhos van por lo mare- Anonymous CMP 453
1486 - Columbus presents his project to the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella
26. Reading: "Finally, having recourse to the Spanish expression..."
27. Frottola: In te Domine speravi- Josquin des Pres CMP 84
IV The Waning of Al-Andalus
28. Improvisation Arabo-Andalusain Song (santur & flute)
29. Reading: Arabic text by Ibn Zamrak
30. Kharcha: Ya am laja halki (Andalusia, 13th century)
1492 (2 January) The Conquest of Granada
31. Music: La Spagna (instrumental) Listen
32. Reading: Concerning the Treaty of the Alhambra and the surrender of Granada.
33-34. Villancico: Levanta Pascualque Granada es tomada - Juan del Enzina CMP
35. Romance: Qu'es de ti desconsolado - Juan del Enzina CMP
Disc: 2
V The Sephardic Diaspora
1. Music: las Estrellas de los cielos (Sefardic anonymous)
The Saint Inquisition
2. Hymn: Patres nostri peccaverunt- Johannes Cornago
1492 (31 March) Expulsion of the unconverted Jews
3. Reading: Edict of the Expulsion of the Jews, Joan Coloma (Secretary to the King and Queen)
4-5. Reading: Prayer in Aramaic: Ha lahma 'anya
Music: Prayer in Ladino: The Breadof affliction - Anonymous Sephardic
Account of the expulsion of the Jews
6. Reading: "Within a few months..." Andres Bernaldez, confessor to Queen
7. Hebrew Lament: Ma aidej? Ma adamelaj - Anonymous
VI Of Discoveries and Wrongs
1492 (3 October) First Voyage of Columbus
8. Music: Improvisation on a Fantasia de Lluis del Mila (Viheula)
Reading: Christopher Columbus, Letter to the Catholic Monarchs (First voyage): « Having expelled all the Jews from your realms and dominions... »
9. Music: Voca la galiera(instrumental)- Anonymous CMM 18
1492 (12 October) The New World is sighted from the caravel the Pinta
10. Reading: "He sailed to the west-south-west." Christopher Columbus, Ship's log.
1502 Forced conversion of all Moors in the kingdoms of Castille
11. Music: Lament instrumental (improvisation)
12. Reading: "The King and Queen, seeing from the many signs given by the mudejar Moors..."
13. Music: Nuba Hiyay Msmarqi. Mizan Bsit. Ya muslimin qalbi - (Arabo-Andalusian lament, 16th century)
1502 Moctezuma II is proclaimed emperor of the Aztecs
14. Reading: Nauhatl poem on the fleeting nature of all things
15. Music:Homagio Kogui (Quena and Amerindian drums)
16. Reading: « ¿Acaso de verdad se vive en este mundo? ... »
VII The Last Will and Testament of Isabella and the Death of Colombus
17. Music: Departez vous (instrumental)- Guillaume Dufay
1504 The Last Will and Testament of Isabella I of Castile
18. Reading: On the treatment of the native Indians, Friar Bartolomé de las Casas's reply to the physician Ginés de Sepúlveda
19. Villancico: Todos los bienes del mundo- Juan del Enzina CMP 61
1506 (20 May) Christopher Colombus dies in Valladolid
20. Music: Fortuna desperata - Heinrich Isaac
21. Reading: "In May, 1505..."
22. Music: "Miserere nostri/Vexilla Regis CMM 106
Epitaph
23. Music: Fantasía I - Lluís del Mila
Fragment of a letter from the Admiral
24. Reading: "I am not the first Admiral in my family..."
25. Processional Hymn: Hanacpachap cussicuinin (Quechua)- Juan Perez Bocanegra
Personnel:
Núria Espert (narrator, catalan), Francisco Rojas (narrator, catalan), Manuel Forcano (narrator, latin, arabice & aramean), Montserrat Figueras (soprano), Begoña Olavide (mezzo-soprano), Lluís Vilamajó (tenor), Furio Zanasi (baritone)
La Capella Reial de Catalunya:
Arianna Savall, Henar álvarez (soprano), Ana Huete (soprano), Carlos Mena (counter-tenor), David Sagastume (counter-tenor), José Hernández (counter-tenor), Francesc Garrigosa (tenor), Lambert Climent (tenor), Jordi Ricart (baritone), Daniele Carnovich (bass)
Hespèrion XXI:
Pierre Hamon (recorder), Jordi Savall (soprano bowed vielle, rebab), Fahmi Alqhai (rebec, bass bowed vielle), Driss El Maloumi ('ud), Andrew Lawrence-King (Renaissance harp), Begoña Olavide (psaltery), Dimitris Psonis (santur), Sergi Casademunt (tenor bowed vielle), Rolf Lislevand (vihuela de mano, guitar), Xavier Díaz-Latorre (vihuela de mano, guitar), Jean-Pierre Canihac (cornet), Lluís Coll (cornet), Beatrice Delpierre (shawm), Daniel Lassalle (sackbut), Richard Cheetham (sackbut), Jordi Giménez (sackbut), Josep Borràs (bajón, dulcian), Carles Cristóbal (bajón, dulcian), Michael Behringer (room organ), Pedro Estevan (percussions), David Mayoral (percussions)
Jordi Savall, director.

This remarkable release, comprising two CDs and a book of 270 pages with information in Spanish, English, German, Italian, Catalan, Arabic, and Hebrew, is a veritable history lesson in music, poetry, and literature about Spain, as well as Christopher Columbus and his voyages and times. The title of the set, Lost Paradises, refers to the cessation of the period during which all three traditions - Jewish, Muslim and Christian - worked together to create greatness. The music, pre-baroque and sounding very exotic indeed, is exquisitely performed, sometimes by itself and sometimes in conjunction with the reading of a text. The Moorish and Sephardic music is particularly colorful, but the more familiar, "early" music is just as ravishing. With repertoire both sacred and profane, featuring dances and dirges, Savall, in his notes, is attempting to make us pay heed to the past so that we may form our futures: This isn't as pedantic as it sounds, but it is certainly more than an afternoon of great music listening. What a stunning gift this would make - either to yourself or others.