MP3 2CD Hespèrion XXI - Diáspora Sefardí

Jordi Savall, Montserrat Figuras and Hespérion XXI pioneered the revival of early Spanish repertoire more than two decades ago… Their experience reaps tremendous dividends with the two-CD set Diáspora Sefardí. This is music of the Sefardim, the Spanish Jews exiled in 1492, but extends beyond the expected repertoire to include later music from those who settled as far away as Rhodos, Sofía and Sarajevo.

The first disc is a programme of romances, Montserrat Figueras giving deeply impassioned performances pitched between heartrending elegy and searing eroticism…

Throughout, the playing is superb, but inevitably the musicians really come into their own on the second CD, a set of instrumentals and improvisations, including the slow-burning rapture of Axerico. Here is 130 minutes of incredibly evocative, primal music with the potential to go way beyond the early music market and become a huge hit with followers of folk, world, jazz and perhaps even rock…

The Sephardic Jews, scattered through the world after their expulsion from Spain in 1492, kept alive for centuries not only their language, Ladino, but an extraordinary repertory of "folk" songs, many of them quite sophisticated. As Ladino culture began to slowly fade away over the course of the 20th century, musicologists collected and transcribed these melodies from Ladino-speaking communities in Sarajevo, Sofia, Saloniki, Smyrna, Jerusalem, and other cities. Beginning in the 1970s, these extraordinary songs were revived (to considerable excitement) for concert audiences…

Disc 1 contains eight songs performed lovingly by the magnetic Montserrat Figueras (who sings with an appropriately unstudied tone). The second disc includes eight more melodies performed instrumentally; the choice of instruments reflects the influence of the Muslim-ruled areas where the Sephardim settled with the oud, rebab, and qanun (Middle Eastern equivalents of the lute, fiddle, and dulcimer) performing alongside harps, lutes, flutes, and frame drums.

Tracklist:

1. El moro de Antequera (Rhodes)
2. Levantose el Conde Niño (Saloniki)
3. El Rey de Francia
4. Por allí pasó un cavallero
5. Por que llorax (Chanson Sefardite)
6. La guirnalda de rosas (Rhodes)
7. Nani Nani, Sephardic cradle song
8. El Rey que tanto madruga
9. Las Estrellas de los cielos (The Stars in the Sky)
10. En la santa Helena (Sofía)
11. A la una yo naci
12. Improvisación
13. Paxarico tu te Ilamas
14. Yo era niña de casa alta (Esmirna)
15. Longe de mi tu estarás (Sofía)
16. Hermosa muchachica (Jerusalem)
17. Axerica de quinze anyos (Saloniki)
18. Improvosacion

Download the 1st CD:

http://rapidshare.de/files/20905813/JS-DS_rishon.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/20919166/JS-DS_rishon.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/20925162/JS-DS_rishon.part3.rar

Download the 2nd CD:

http://rapidshare.de/files/20930492/JS-DS_sheyni.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/20936735/JS-DS_sheyni.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/20947793/JS-DS_sheyni.part3.rar