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Villancicos y Danzas Criollas / Savall, Hesperion XXI, et al


Release Date: 03/09/2004 
Label:  Alia Vox   Catalog #: 9834   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Juan Arañés,  Jordi Savall,  Pedro Guerrero,  Mateo Flecha,   ... 
Performer:  Arianna Savall,  Pedro Estevan,  Marc Clos
Conductor:  Jordi Savall
Orchestra/Ensemble:  La Capella Reial de Catalunya,  Hespèrion XXI
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
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Notes and Editorial Reviews

A fascinating collection of songs and dances from the Iberian peninsula

There is no mistaking it as the product of Hespèrion XXI: the soundworld, with a wide range of instruments and featuring percussion, the distinctive voice of Figueras and the distinguished viol-playing of Savall. And as the stimulating booklet-notes by Rui Vieira Nery suggest, what we glimpse here is the persistence of various cultures within a multicultural, multilingual context and ‘the permanent interplay between all social levels of artistic movements’. So the popular, of whatever cultural tradition – European, African, Amerindian – rubs shoulders with the more cultivated. The mix of musical elements in these (mostly 17th-century) pieces Read more from Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula is fascinating. Dance rhythms pervade much of this vocal music, the texts of which are rich in imagery or dynamic in their dialogue format. I particularly enjoyed the semi-improvised cachua which, though featuring viol and plucked strings, could well be imagined on panpipes, and Torrejón y Velasco’s beautiful Christmas villancico in the form of a lullaby, Desvelado dueño mio, performed with finely judged expressivity: touching but unsentimentalised.

Cererols’s eight-part villancico based on the popular melody of the otherwise quite racy Marizápolos melody is similarly affecting. No percussion in these two items, but plenty elsewhere. Some of the texts, particularly that of the five-voice negro Antonya, Flaciquia, Gasipà by the Portuguese Filipe da Madre de Deus, are not only racy but racist by today’s standards. It is all so interesting – a really original contribution from Hespèrion XXI.

-- Tess Knighton, GRAMOPHONE
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Works on This Recording

1.
A la vida bona by Juan Arañés
Conductor:  Jordi Savall
Orchestra/Ensemble:  La Capella Reial de Catalunya,  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: by 1624; Spain 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 6 Minutes 30 Secs. 
2.
Danza de Hacha by Jordi Savall
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: 20th Century 
Written: Spain 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 2 Minutes 28 Secs. 
3.
Di, perra mora by Pedro Guerrero
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Renaissance 
Written: by 1569; Spain 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 3 Minutes 27 Secs. 
4.
San Sabeya gugurumbé by Mateo Flecha
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Renaissance 
Written: Spain 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 5 Minutes 20 Secs. 
5.
Jota by Traditional
Performer:  Arianna Savall (Double Harp), Pedro Estevan (Percussion), Marc Clos (Percussion)
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 3 Minutes 23 Secs. 
6.
Ay, que me rio de Amor by Juan Hidalgo
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: 17th Century; Madrid, Spain 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 2 Minutes 26 Secs. 
7.
Tleycantimo choquiliya by Gaspar Fernandes
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: Mexico 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 4 Minutes 41 Secs. 
8.
Antonya Flaciquia Gasipà by Filipe da Madre de Deus
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: 17th Century 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 9 Minutes 55 Secs. 
9.
Cachua serranita by Anonymous
Conductor:  Jordi Savall
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Written: by 1713; Peru 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 4 Minutes 15 Secs. 
10.
Desvelado dueño mio by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: Peru 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 5 Minutes 48 Secs. 
11.
Un juguetico de fuego by M. De Torres Y Portugal
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 7 Minutes 39 Secs. 
12.
Convidando está la noche by Juan Garcia de Zéspedes
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: 17th Century; Mexico 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 1 Minutes 11 Secs. 
13.
Ay que me abraso by Juan Garcia de Zéspedes
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: 17th Century; Mexico 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 3 Minutes 26 Secs. 
14.
Marizápalos a lo divino: Serafin con dulce harmonia by Joan Cererols
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: 17th Century; Spain 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 6 Minutes 53 Secs. 
15.
A siolo flasiquiyo by Juan Gutierrez de Padilla
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: 17th Century; Mexico 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 4 Minutes 22 Secs. 
16.
Ritual formulario: Hanacpachap by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Hespèrion XXI
Period: Baroque 
Written: by 1631; Peru 
 Date of Recording: 2001-03 
Venue:  Cardona Castle, Catalonya, Spain 
Length: 5 Minutes 8 Secs. 
Language: Quechua 

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review:  ( 1 Customer Review )
 FANASTICO!!!!!! May 5, 2016 By Gregory K. (Jersey City, NJ) See All My Reviews "Jordi Savall does it again. This CD is filled with magnificent musical selections -- my wife and I were lucky enough to see them performed live with the late great Ms.Figueras present and, as always, in divine form. An absolute treasure from start to finish." Report Abuse
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