Different Cavalier

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Dinastia Borgia - Chiesa e potere nel Rinascimento (2010) [3CD+DVD] {Alia Vox}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.11 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 534 Mb
DVD5 -> 3.73 Gb | All Regions | PAL 4:3 | Dolby AC3, 2 ch | ~ 81m | ISO Image | Subs: Catala, French, English
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 927 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2010 Alia Vox | AVSA 9875
Classical / Renaissance

Coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Francis Borgia, Fourth Duke of Gandia, Jordi Savall and Alia Vox offer a visually lavish and artistically comprehensive new release entitled Dinastia Borgia. Savall’s latest musicological/historical quest focuses on music from the time of the Borgia dynasty, including works by composers such as Isaac, Dufay and Morales, from Pope Alexander VI/6 and two of his children, Cesare and Lucrezia, through to Francis Borgia, Jesuit priest and, perhaps, composer. For five centuries, scholars have studied and debated the role of the Borgias in Renaissance history. Although their name is synonymous with Papal corruption and they were undoubtedly malevolent and immoral, as patrons of the arts, the Borgias were also instrumental in the period’s explosive growth of culture.

Given that box sets are too often thrown together in a last cavalier attempt to get mileage from back catalog, it's a pleasure to find one that has rhyme and reason, assembling a program that would be hard for the buyer to find on his or her own and offering a real tribute to a beloved figure.

Along with Wit's Naxos recording, this is one of the best versions of Messiaen's phantasmagoric Turangalîla-Symphonie available, and it's very different: swifter, more obviously virtuosic in concept, perhaps a touch less warm in consequence, and engineered with greater “in your face” immediacy. The playing of the Concertgebouw, always a wonderful Messiaen orchestra, is stunning throughout. Chailly revels in the music's weirdness. The Ondes Martinot, for example, is particularly well captured. It's interesting how earlier performances tended to minimize its presence, perhaps for fear that is would sound silly, which of course it does, redeemed by the composer's utter seriousness and obliviousness to anything that smacks of humor. In any case, it's not all noise and bluster. The Garden of Love's Sleep is gorgeous, hypnotic, but happily still flowing, while the three Turangalîla rhythmic studies have remarkable clarity. Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays the solo piano part magnificently, really as well as anyone else ever has.

"Miracles do happen, it seems. Three weeks after Rossini's La pietra del paragone received its first DVD incarnation on Opus Arte, the French Naïve label released this alternative. Remarkably, both DVDs document excellent, entertaining performances, both are extremely well filmed, both come with generous extras and both are brilliantly packaged. Yet each performance offers a different approach – musically and production-wise – so both are worthy of consideration…
– Dominic McHugh, MusicalCriticism.com