Vox Iberica III: El Sabio
Songs for King Alfonso X of Castile and Léon (1221-1284)

CD (total time 77:35)

Recorded February 1991 in the church of St. Germanus, Seewen (CH)

Released 1992 by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / BMG Classics (05472771732), in co-production with WDR Köln

Note: the 3 CDs of this series were also released as a boxed set.

Booklet 67 pp.

 

King Alfonso ‘el Sabio’ is well known for the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which were collected under his patronage in the mid-13th century. In addition to these popular Gallician-Portuguese Marian miracle-stories and praise-songs, which were sung at his court, this programme shows another side of the polyglot artistic life under a ruler whose tolerance towards Jews and Muslims is known to us today: performances of Andalusian kharjas and a major work by the late trobador Guiraut Riquier, living in self-imposed exile in Castile. For this third and final recording of the award-winning Vox Iberica series (Deutsche Schallplattenpreis), Sequentia’s co-founders Barbara Thornton and Benjamin Bagby (voice, harp & lute) are joined by ten vocal soloists (male and female) and medieval fiddler Rainer Ullreich.