Christophorus Columbus

Christophorus Columbus
Paraísos Perdidos - Lost Paradises - Paradis Perdus
M. Figueras, Hespèrion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya - J. Savall, dir.
Alia Vox AVSA 9850 A+B [SACD-Hx2]

Contents:

    Disc I

    I Ancient Prophecies and Evocations

    Medea (Tragedy, Act II) - Seneca (1 st. Century a.C.)
    Music: Chorus: G. Binchois; Solo: Anonymous s. XII
    (text quoted and translated by Columbus in his Book of Prophecies)
  1. Introduction
  2. Invocation: Chorus: « Tethysque novos detegat orbes »
  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 sæcula seris »
  8. Reading: « Venient annis sæcula seris quibus oceanus vincula rerum laxet... »
  9. Invocation: Chorus: « Tethysque novos detegat orbes »
  10. Reading: « Vendrán los tardos años del mundo... »

    11. 1408 Reign of the Nasrid emir Yusuf III
  11. Music: Hymn Sufi (Instrumental improv.)
  12. Music: Improvisation
    Reading: « Description of the beautiful sights of Granada » - Ibn Battuta, Travels
  13. Music: Instr. Al-Andalus Mowachah Billadi askara min aadbi Llama

    14. 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. Music: Percussion
    Reading: « Having reached Antequera », Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Ch. XXIX
  16. Music: Zappay (instr.) - CMM 20

    17. 1443 (February) Alfonso V the Magnanimous enters Naples
  17. Music: Collinetto (instr.) - CMM 22
    Reading: « Here I shall relate the graeat honour with which the king was received »,
    From the Diary of Melcior Miralles, chaplain to Alfonso V and of the Cathedral of Valencia
  18. Villota: Dindirindin - Anonymous CMM 127

    19. 1451 (October) Christopher Columbus is born
  19. Music: O tempo bono (introduction)
    Reading: « Seeing as how his forefathers were of the royal blood of Jerusalem... » Hernando Colón
  20. Strambotto: O tempo bono - Anonymous CMM 132

    21. III New Routes and Grand Project

    1474 (25 June) Letter from the Florentine physician Toscanelli to Prince Juan
  21. Music: Voca la galiera (instr.) - Anonymous CMM 18
    Reading: « A map made by my own hand, ... On voyages to the west... »
  22. Basse Dance: Mappa Mundi (Kyrie of the Mass) - Johannes Cornago

    23. 1480 Shipwreck off Cape St Vincent
  23. Music: Chiave, Chiave (instr.) - Anonymous CMM 131
    Reading: « They had been fighting from morning ... », Hernando Colón, Life of the Admiral

    24. 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

    26. 1486 - Columbus presents his project to the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella
  26. Reading: « Finally, having recourse to to the Spanish expression ... »
  27. Frottola: In te Domine Speravi - Josquin des Près CMP 84

    28. IV The Waning of Al-Andalus

  28. Improvisation Arabo-Andalusian Song
  29. Music: Improvisation
    Reading: Arabic text by Ibn Zamrak
  30. Kharcha: Ya am laja halki (Andalusia, 13th century)

    31. 1492 (2 January) The Conquest of Granada
  31. Music: La Spagna (instr.)
  32. Music
    Reading: « Pasaron Julio e Agosto... »
    Concerning the Treaty of the Alhambra and the surrender of Granada by Andrés Nernáldez (priest and confessor to Queen Isabella and to the Inquisitor General of Castile)
  33. Reading: « Levanta Pascual... »
  34. Villancico: « Levanta Pascual que Granada es romada » - Juan del Enzina, CMP 184
  35. Romance: Qu'es de ti desconsolado - Juan del Enzina CMP

    36. Disc II

    V The Sephardic Diaspora

  36. Music: Las Estrellas de los cielos (Sefardic anonymous), Improv.

    37. The Saint Inquisition
  37. Hymn: Patres Nostris peccaverunt - Johannes Cornago CMM 2

    38. 1492 (31 March) Expulsion of the unconverted Jews
  38. Music: Improvisation
    Reading: Edict of the Expulsion of the Jews, Joan Coloma (Secretary to the Queen and Queen)
  39. Music: Improvisation on The bread of affliction - Anonymous Sephardic
    Reading: Prayer in Aramaic: Ha lahma 'anya
  40. Music: Prayer in Ladino: The bread of affliction - Anonymous Sephardic

    41. Account of the expulsion of the Jews
  41. Music: Melodí Sefardí (Improv.)
    Reading: « Within a few months... » by Andrés Bernáldez, confessor to Queen Isabella
  42. Hebrew Lament: Mà aidéj? Mà adamélaj - Anonymous

    43. VI Of Discoveries and Wrongs

    1492 (3 October) First Voyage of Columbus
  43. Music: Improv. on a Fantasía de Lluís del Milà (Vihuela)
    Reading: Christopher Columbus, Letter to the Catholic Monarchs (First voyage): « Having expelled all the Jews from your realms and dominions... »
  44. Music: Voca la galiera (instr.) - Anonymous, CMM 18

    45. 1492 (12 October) The New World is sighted from the caravel the Pinta
  45. Reading: « He sailed to the west-south-west. » Christopher Columbus, Ship's log
    Music

    46. 1502 Forced conversion of all Moors in the kingdoms of Castille
  46. Music: Lament instr. (improv.)
  47. Music: Prelude to the Nuba
    Reading: « The King and Queen, seeing from the many signs given by the mudejar Moors... »
  48. Music: Nuba Hiyay Msmarqi. Mizan Bsit. Ya muslimin qalbi (Arabo-Andalusian lament, 16th century)

    49. 1502 Moctezuma II is proclaimed emperor of the Aztecs
  49. Nauhatl poem on the fleeting nature of all things
    Music: Improvisation
    Reading: « ¿Cuix oc nelli nemohua oa in tlalticpac Yhui ohuaye? »
  50. Music: Homagio Kogui improv.
  51. Music: Improvisation
    Reading: « ¿Acaso de verdad se vive en la tierra? ... »

    52. VII The Last Will and Testament of Isabella and the Death of Colombus

  52. Music: Departez vous (instr.) - Guillaume Dufay

    53. 1504 The Last Will and Testament of Isabella I of Castile
  53. Music
    Reading: On the treatment of the native indians, Friar Bartolomé de las Casas's reply to the physician Ginés de Sepúlveda
  54. Villancico: Todos los bienes del mundo - Juan del Enzina CMP 61

    55. 1506 (20 May) Christopher Colombus dies in Valladolid
  55. Music: Fortuna desperata - Heinrich Isaac
  56. Music: Introduction for Miserere nostri
    Reading: « In May, 1505 ... »
  57. Music: Miserere nostri / Vexilla Regis - Anonymous CMM 106

    58. Epitaph
  58. Music: Fantasía I - Luís del Milà

    59. Fragment of a letter from the Admiral
  59. Music: Anonymous melody s. XVI
    Reading: « I am not the first Admiral in my family »
  60. Processional Hymn: Hanacpachap cussicuinin (Quechua) - Juan Pérez Bocanegra

Playing time: 78' 14" + 70' 40" = 2h 28' 54"

Performers:
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, dir.

Recording site and date:
[1]-[13], [15], [17], [19b], [21]-[29], [32]-[33], [35], [36], [38]-[53], [55]-[56], [58]-[59] Monasterio de Sant Pere de Rodes, El Port de la Selva, Girona, Spain [05-08/2006];
[14], [16], [18], [19a], [20], [30], [31], [34], [37], [54], [57], [60] See links below
Rel.: November 2006

Excerpts:
[14] Alia Vox AV 9809
[16], [18], [19a], [20], [57] Alia Vox AV 9816
[30] Alia Vox AV 9847
[31], [34], [37] Alia Vox AV 9838
[54] Alia Vox AV 9814
[60] Alia Vox AV 9834

Reviewed in:
Diapason (#-p.): 543-75 (january 2007)
Fanfare (Vol./#-p.): 31/2- (November / December 2007)
Gramophone (Vol./#-p.): 84/1018-113 (may 2007)

Comments:
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Pierre-F. Roberge