DE SEVILLA A ISFAHÁN
ACCADEMIA DEL PIACERE
Fahmi Alqhai, viola da gamba & direction
Rami Alqhai, viola da gamba
Johanna Rose, viola da gamba
CONSTANTINOPLE
Kiya Tabassian, setar, voice & direction
Didem Basar, qanun
Patrick Graham and Hamin Honari, percussion
Programme
Golestan – Panj-gâh pishrow, anonymous Persian (16th c.)
Glosa sobre el canto llano Pange Lingua – Anonymous – Fahmi Alqhai
Ghome Ajam & Pir-e Mey Foroush – Pishrow Mohayer, Osul Duyek, anonymous Persian (16th c.)
Si tus penas no pruebo & su glosa – Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) – Fahmi Alqhai
Diferencias de Conde Claros – Luis de Narváez (c. 1500-1552)
Nikriz Pishrow – Aga Mu’men (c. 1580-1640)
Fantasia que contrahaze la harpa en la manera de Ludovico – Alonso de Mudarra (c. 1510-1580)
Romanescas – Alonso de Mudarra – Fahmi Alqhai
Buzurg pishrow (excerpt) – Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723)
Fecit potentiam & Fantasia 37 – Miguel de Fuenllana (c. 1500-1579)
Fandango – Santiago de Murcia (1673-1739) – Fahmi Alqhai
Chavosh – Kiya Tabassian
Pishrow Bousalik Ashirani – Dimitrie Cantemir
Arrangements: Fahmi Alqhai and Kiya Tabassian
The ensembles Constantinople – based in Montreal, Canada, and directed from the setar by Kiya Tabassian, born in old Persia – and Accademia del Piacere – directed by Fahmi Alqhai, the Seville-born viola da gamba player of Syrian-Palestinian descent – take their inspiration from the criss-crossing journeys of Rui González de Clavijo and the Persian prince Uruch Beg, or Don Juan of Persia. These travels brought into contact not only the powers of East and West five centuries ago, but also cultures which, though distant, always kept up ties in literature, the arts and music. Manuscripts from the Spanish Renaissance and from palace libraries such as Topkapi in Constantinople, masterpieces of kindred essence from Seville to Samarkand, are brought together through the contemporary vision of Alqhai and Tabassian.
Programme notes
“De Sevilla a Isfahán” was presented in Montreal, Canada in a theatre designed for early music and chamber concerts. The programme brings together repertoires from the Spanish Renaissance and the Persian world, exploring the dialogue between historically connected cultures.
In 1582 Argote de Molina published in Seville Embajada a Tamorlán (Embassy to Tamerlane), the extraordinary travel book written by Rui González de Clavijo in the early 15th century. In it he recounts his journey – together with the Dominican friar Alfonso Páez de Santamaría, as ambassadors of King Henry III of Castile – to the court of the legendary Tamerlane: from Cádiz to Samarkand, by way of places as dazzling as Constantinople or Persia. Around the same years as the Sevillian Argote’s publication, the Persian prince Uruch Beg, later known as Don Juan of Persia, made the reverse journey from the East to Europe, setting out from Isfahan to settle in Castile after visiting the great European courts.
Far from being isolated journeys, these embassies were a sign of the times of a true proto-globalisation: the same trend that drove Portugal to cross the oceans from west to east in search of trade with the Orient, and later Columbus and Magellan to cross them in the opposite direction and close the circle of the great globe. Such journeys brought into contact not only the powers of East and West but also cultures which, though distant, always kept up ties in literature, the arts and music, giving rise to the first great wave of migrations and multicultural exchanges that united the world.
Inspired by these accounts, the ensembles Constantinople – based in Montreal, Canada, and directed from the setar by Kiya Tabassian, born in old Persia – and Accademia del Piacere – directed by Fahmi Alqhai, the Seville-born viola da gamba player of Syrian-Palestinian descent – set out to immerse themselves in the music of the Spanish Renaissance and of the Persian and Ottoman empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. They do so within a narrative framework based on the texts of the two travellers, González de Clavijo and Don Juan of Persia, retracing in music the criss-crossing journeys and explorations of these two figures. Their starting point will be manuscripts from the Sevillian and Castilian palaces of the Golden Age of Spanish music: a period known here as the Renaissance, but equally prolific for the musicians of the Persian courts and of the whole Ottoman Empire. From these, too, we will take as raw musical material the manuscripts unearthed in monasteries and palace libraries such as Topkapi in Constantinople. Modal music from both worlds, masterpieces of kindred essence from Seville to Samarkand, will be brought together through the contemporary vision of Alqhai and Tabassian.
Juan Ramón Lara
