North of Barcelona sits the hill of Montserrat ("serrated mountain" in Catalan). Atop its summit sits the monastery of Santa Maria, which houses the famous "Black Madonna", La Moreneta, a holy object which has drawn pilgrims since the 12th century. The Llibre Vermell ("Red Book") is a collection of music, hymns, writings and much more that has been the crown of the monastery's archives for centuries, and it is music from that which Savall and his team perform here. The music was written to be danced in the church or the cloisters. This performance gives us an insight into medieval Christianity that is all but unique, and it's cherishable if for nothing other than historical reasons. The polyphony is early, and modest, but the choir of La Capella Reial sing it with seriousness and disarming simplicity. The ladies are particularly impressive, with some spine-tingling alto solos that are both devotional and sensuous in a combination that shouldn't work but really does.
Jordi Savall conducts La Capella Reial de Catalunya & Le Concert des Nation thought this Bach's masterpiece: the Mass in B minor.
Believing that the chorus parts are of a complexity even greater than that of the solo parts, Jordi Savall handpicked for this recording an 'academy' of young singers destined for careers as solo professionals. The technical and artistic quality of the result obtained after several weeks of rehearsal is beyond superlatives. Jordi Savall chose to adapt the number of singers in each section of Bach's sublime Mass, in his first recording of a vocal work by Bach.
Dinastia Borgia is a musical odyssey tracing the history of the Borgias from the birth of Alfonso de Borgia in the 14th century, through his accession to the Papacy and the subsequent twists and turns of theocratic intrigue. This documentary DVD looks behind the scenes of the the three disc recording.
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