Cleveland's early music ensemble Apollo's Fire and its director, Jeannette Sorrell, have a reputation for innovative programming. Here, they enter fully into Jordi Savall territory with a program of music that, although it might not have actually been performed together at any point in history, brings together diverse materials in search of deeper historical themes. In addition to the three faiths of the subtitle, Sorrell explores the four neighborhoods of Jerusalem's Old Quarter, namely Jewish, Arab, Christian, and ...
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Cleveland's early music ensemble Apollo's Fire and its director, Jeannette Sorrell, have a reputation for innovative programming. Here, they enter fully into Jordi Savall territory with a program of music that, although it might not have actually been performed together at any point in history, brings together diverse materials in search of deeper historical themes. In addition to the three faiths of the subtitle, Sorrell explores the four neighborhoods of Jerusalem's Old Quarter, namely Jewish, Arab, Christian, and Armenian, and, to boot, the deep interactions between sacred and secular music in these traditions. Sorrell has done research into the Sephardic music of Spain, and it is well represented here, but there are bits and pieces of many musics. She includes two excerpts from Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 and makes the interesting suggestion that its vocal lines were influenced by Jewish and Arab sacred chants. The program is organized as a walk through the four neighborhoods, concluding with a...
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