Medieval Power Games

Another lavish concept project from Jordi Savall and co, presented in hardback book form and with three cd's on this occasion. Le Royaume Oublie, or the lost kingdom, is about the Albigensian crusades against the supposed heresy of the Cathars in the kingdom of Occitan which streteched across southern France to the border regions with Spain and the Pyrenees which was its heartland. The music on the three disks traces the aspects of this lost culture from the folk styles of the troubadours through Sephardic Jewish influences and sacred music adopted from plainchant. It moves on to include songs of the Crusaders and music associated with the following persecution unleashed by the Spanish Inquisition. The three disks end with Turkish music representing the fall to the Ottomans of the final stronghold of the heresy in Bosnia and with a heartfelt lament played by Jordi Savall himself. The musicians are drawn from Hesperion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, with the various array of guests that one is almost tempted now to describe as the usual suspects. The destruction of the Cathars was much more to do with politics and power, at least on the part of the Catholic church, than with any deeply held beliefs about religious dogma. And while not all of the music featured is downbeat, there is a pervading melancholy for a culture that was lost.