Hesperion Ministriles Reales

Juan García de Salazar was a Spanish Baroque composer from the Basque country who spent most of his career working at Zamora Cathedral; he is so obscure the entry for him in the New Grove doesn't even include a list of his works. Musicologist Manuel Sagastume Arregi has pulled together a number of Salazar's extant movements related to the Vespers service with additional material to create Juan García de Salazar: Complete Vespers of Our Lady in Naxos' Spanish Classics series. It is performed by the Basque ensemble Capilla Peñaflorida and features the period wind group Ministriles de Marsias and the fine baritone of Josep Cabré. There are no stars here, though – everything on Juan García de Salazar: Complete Vespers of Our Lady is done to the service of the music, which is outstanding. Sagastume Arregi's realization of García de Salazar's Vespers service incorporates appropriate plainchant sections taken from a Basque hymnal dated 1692, organ music by García de Salazar's contemporaries José Ximenez and Martín Garcia de Olagüe, instrumental arrangements of García de Salazar's motets, and an arrangement of Tomás Luis de Victoria's Vidi speciosam probably made by García de Salazar himself.

This superb disc of music by one of Spain's most talented early 16th century composers is exactly the sort of boost that the less well-known repertoire needs in its search for a place in today's CD collection. It is in every way a model of what a recording of Renaissance polyphony ought to be… The all male vocal ensemble sings with enormous conviction as well as firm control of rhythm and phrasing. Combining the voices with energetically played sackbuts produces a rich and dark-hued sound that feels authentically Spanish, and does full justice to this very fine music.

Despite its hefty, hardbound, 300-plus-page book and attendant top price, Jordi Savall's Venezia Millenaria has appeared on commercial sales charts. It's easy to see why: this is one of Savall's most ambitious concepts, covering the promised millennium of the history of the city of Venice, Italy, plus a bit more as a bonus, taking you up to the end of Venice's independence. The book contains enough information that it could serve as the basis for a little travelers' course, but there's also a case to be made for just listening and letting a thousand years of music wash over you.

Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XXI - Altre Follie, 1500-1750 (2005) {Alia Vox AVSA9844}
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© 2005 Alia Vox | AVSA 9844
Classical / Renaissance / Baroque / Chamber Music

Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as the new, centralized power of the absolute state was established in most European nations, royal courts all over Europe became the very heart of cultural and artistic life in their respective countries. They assembled an elite of aristocratic courtiers who were expected to master the principles of poetry, dance and vocal and instrumental music, as much as they were supposed to follow a strict and complex etiquette in all aspects of daily social interaction, adopt a luxurious and ever-changing fashion code, or sustain a refined conversation with a lady.

The second son of Martín García de Anchieta and Urtayzaga de Loyola, who was a great-aunt of the future saint, Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, members of a leading family in the Basque country, Juan de Anchieta was born in 1462 near Azpeitia in Guipúzcoa in the Iraurgui valley. Although there is no information about his formative years, it is possible that he served as a chorister in the chapel of Henry IV of Castile and perhaps studied at Salamanca University, where Diego de Fermoselle, an elder brother of Juan del Encina, taught. In 1489 he was appointed as a singer in the Court Chapel of Queen Isabella the Catholic, with a salary of 20,000 maravedís, increased in 1493 to 30,000 maravedís. In 1495 he was appointed maestro di capilla to the Prince Don Juan. After the death of the Prince in 1497 he returned to the service of the Queen, to be ……
From Naxos

Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XXI - Ibn Battuta, The Traveller of Islam, 1304-1377 (2019) {Alia Vox AVSA9930, SACD}
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© 2019 Alia Vox | AVSA 9930
Classical / Medieval / World Music

Ibn Battuta had the same significance in the Muslim world as Marco Polo in the Western countries. A relentless traveler, he deeply changed the perception of the Orient among his contemporaries and the following generations. Morocco, Mali, Egypt, Yemen, Zanzibar, India, The Maldives and China: this non-exhaustive list gives us a hint about the extraordinary journey Jordi Savall invites us on.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Mare Nostrum - Orient - Occident: Dialogues (2011) {2CD Set Alia Vox AVSA 9888}
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© 2011 Alia Vox | AVSA 9888
Classical / Medieval / Choral

Mare Nostrum (Latin for Our Sea ) was a Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea, one of the most important focal points of cultural, political and intellectual growth and exchange and dialogue in the history of humankind. In this lavishly illustrated CD-book, Jordi Savall and the musicians of Hespèrion XXI invite us to explore the facts, myths and legends of the Mediterranean and the sway it has had over many peoples and cultures from Morocco to Israel, from Spain to Lebanon. Also featured on the recording are soprano Montserrat Figueras and Israeli singer Lior Elmaleh, one of the leading representatives of the new generation of performers of Andalusian music.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Diaspora Sefardi (1999) {2CD Set Alia Vox AV 9809 A+B} (Montserrat Figueras)
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© 1999 Alia Vox | AV 9809 A+B
Classical / Medieval / Renaissance / Chamber Music / Vocal Music / Jewish Folk / Western European Traditions / Spanish Folk

Hespèrion XXI was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2001 for their double album Diáspora Sefardí, a collection of vocal works and instrumental pieces dating from the 15th century when the Jews were expelled from parts of Spain. The Sephardic Diaspora refers to this Jewish exodus in 1492 when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella commanded that all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity be expelled from Castile and Aragon in modern-day Spain. An estimated 100,000 Jews fled to North Africa, lands of the Ottoman empire (particularly Turkey and Greece), and other European countries such as France, Italy, and Portugal. These exiles brought with them unique culture, language, and traditions. The resultant marriage of influences from the Sephardic Jews’ old and new homes is reflected in Hespèrion XXI’s two-disc set, Diáspora Sefardí. The selections on the album depict not only surviving traditions of medieval Hispanic music but also the influence of sophisticated musical forms which developed in the Ottoman empire during the 16th century.

Dimitrie Cantemir - Istanbul: The Book of Science of Music
Hespèrion XXI / Jordi Savall - Gursoy Dincer, Lior Elmaleh & Montserrat Figueras
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Label/Cat#: Alia Vox # AVSA9870 | Country/Year: Spain 2009
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, World Classical

“This is a typical Alia Vox Hesperion release: sumptuously packaged, richly illustrated, and supported by edifying scholarly notes about the music and its historical context. It's recorded in clear yet atmospheric sound…In addition to the late Montserrat Figueras, there is wonderful singing by the Israeli Lior Elmaleh ad the Turk Gursoy Dincer.” ~BBC Music Magazine