Hush Little Baby

Here is a deceptively gentle recital of lullabies, from circa 1500 to 2002, called Ninna Nanna and sung by Montserrat Figueras with Hesperion XXI. I say deceptively gentle because although all the tracks are lullabies, some mothers didn't spare their children the harsher facts of life while singing to them and some of the subject matter is quite melancholy. There are anonymous tunes of Portuguese, English, Spanish, Greek, Sephardic, Berber and Israeli origin as well as songs composed by the likes of Byrd, De Falla, Mussorgsky, Milhaud and Reger, through to Arvo Part of today.The version of Hesperion XXI put together for this disk is a small ensemble with the members varying from song to song according to the context with sometimes only a single accompanist behind Figueras. They are a distinguisged bunch though, such as Paul Badura-Skoda on piano, Andrew Lawrence-King and Figueras's daughter Arianna Savall on harps, Driss El Maloumi on oud as well as players on flutes, psaltery, santur, baroque guitars and a consort of viols led by Figueras's husband Jordi Savall. Despite the material covering several centuries, the overall feel of the disk is of a lost unanimity in Mediterranean culture that could just be starting to make a comeback.