CHRISTOPHORUS COLUMBUS Lost Paradises 2 CD Set / Artist, Conductor, Performer: Jordi Savall  / Performers: David Sagastume, Jordi Ricart  / La Capella Reial de Catalunya / Languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Catalan,Arabic & Hebrew 272 pages, luxury hard back book / CD

Format: CD

UPC:  7619986398501

• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Yes
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.58 x 5.77 x 0.88 inches; 1.43 Pounds
• Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Alia Vox
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ AVOSA9850 02
• Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2007
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ February 11, 2007
• Label ‏ : ‎ Alia Vox
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2

This remarkable release, comprising two CDs and a book of 270 pages with information in Spanish, English, German, Italian, Catalan, Arabic, and Hebrew, is a veritable history lesson in music, poetry, and literature about Spain, as well as Christopher Columbus and his voyages and times. The title of the set, Lost Paradises, refers to the cessation of the period during which all three traditions - Jewish, Muslim and Christian - worked together to create greatness. The music, pre-baroque and sounding very exotic indeed, is exquisitely performed, sometimes by itself and sometimes in conjunction with the reading of a text. The Moorish and Sephardic music is particularly colorful, but the more familiar, "early" music is just as ravishing. With repertoire both sacred and profane, featuring dances and dirges, Savall, in his notes, is attempting to make us pay heed to the past so that we may form our futures: This isn't as pedantic as it sounds, but it is certainly more than an afternoon of great music listening. What a stunning gift this would make - either to yourself or others.

We are not the sole owners of our past. The geographic space that our culture has occupied over the centuries has contained within it diverse peoples of different cultures and religions, such as the Muslim and Jewish communities in ancient Hesperia. But the Middle Ages, which, like the present day, was an age scarred by religious hatred and incomprehension, saw the decline of the former paradise of Hesperia and its “Three Cultures” where, despite all the intolerance and cruelty, Arabs and Jews lived among us, lived like us, were us. At the close of the 15th century, after the Christian conquest of Granada, they were expelled or forcibly converted to Christianity in compliance with royal decrees. Their departure marked the end of an era, the loss of a possible paradise: events which are decried in the written word, lamented in music, illuminated by memory and dignified by our conscience.