Lux Feminæ

 

“Figueras is in her element. She can be dramatic or passionate, facetious or sorrowful; a young girl who wants her freedom and is only restrained with difficulty; and a saintly soul in a mystical union with God. Highly recommended.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2006

“the best kind of musical archaeology, performed with imagination and unquenchable enthusiasm.” --The Guardian

 

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - October 2006
BBC Music Magazine Choral & Song Choice

This collection of mostly unfamiliar music from 900 to 1600 forms an homage to womanhood, femininity, sung by one of the most captivating early-music singers on disc. The ensemble, though made up of familiar personnel including her husband Jordi Savall, her daughter Arianna, Pierre Hamon, and Andrew Lawrence-King, is not credited as Hespèrion XXI. The program is framed by Flavit Auster, a sequence in honor of the Blessed Virgin from Codex Las Huelgas that begins and ends the program. Other women honored are the Sibyl in an abridged rendition of the first Cant de la sibilla that Figueras recorded, and Beatriz de Dia, the first trobairitz. Sacred and profane music follow in succession, with a Cárceres villancico about a wife inviting another man to come in followed by a mystical poem of the Carmelite St. Teresa set as a contrafactum to an unknown melody. A kind of philosophical cast is thrown over the program by notes that divide the songs among seven aspects of womanhood.

Figueras is a supreme artist. The performances are uniformly first-rate, and the surround sound is palpable. The packaging is exactly like two recent Orlando Consort issues, a bound CD-size book of 172 pages, lavish with color printing; texts with six sets of notes and translations; and all the necessary documentation. The total product could not be done better. Buy this and you will treasure it. --FANFARE: J. F. Weber