Granada 1013-1502

On his new theme album, named after Granada – the city that epitomised Muslim rule in Spain and also witnessed its last stand – Jordi Savall continues his search for traces of cultures that lived around the Mediterranean in Medieval times. The album sees the return of regular guest soloists Waed Bouhassoun from Syria, Lior Elmaleh, a Moroccan-Jewish Israeli, and Driss El Maloumi, who is Berber-Moroccan.

Arranged in historical order, the pieces on the album illustrate the rise and fall of the kingdom of Granada, as well as the cultures that coexist there – Muslim, Christian, Jewish – which had complicated relations at times, but also fertilised each other. The album contains a version of ‘Lama Bada Yatathana’, a classic that made its way to the Levant, and which is still popular there. Featuring the beguiling voice of Bouhassoun, supported by El Maloumi, the song sounds as fresh as ever. A few tracks further on, Elmaleh sings a moving Jewish Arab-Andalus lament about Jewish suffering, in which he is joined by Bouhassoun, with the outstanding Syrian flute virtuoso, Syrian Moslem Rahal, contributing a heartrending solo. The song ‘Pero que Seja a Gente’ is another old favourite, attributed to King Alfonso the Wise, an early Roman-Catholic king of Toledo, a fierce conqueror of Muslim rule who, meanwhile, fostered an orchestra at his court with Christian, Jewish and Muslim musicians. The song is about two warring Moroccan Muslim kings who were engaged in an undecided battle, until one invoked Saint Mary, and won. The all-inclusive moral being that the Holy Virgin even helps disbelievers who call for her.

The less idyllic reality sets in with ‘Viva el Gran Re Don Fernando’, an ode to King Ferdinand, who along with his wife Isabella finalised the Christian conquest of all of Spain in 1492, initiating a cruel persecution of Muslims and Jews. That year was also when Columbus left to ‘discover’ the Americas, and ‘Diario de Abordo de Cristóbal Colón’ is a track based on a diary found on board his ship. The last track, ‘Lamento Andalusí’, from a text by the great Arab-Andalus 11th-century poet Ibn Zaydún, is dedicated to the fate of the Iberian Muslims. Here Bouhassoun and Elmaleh sing their hearts out, marking the sense of loss as a main emotional theme of the album.