'Jerusalem' 'La ville des deux paix:

La paix celeste et la paix terrestre' Begona Olavide, Lior Elnialich, Muwafak Shahin Khalil, Razniik Amyan, Lluis Vilamajó, Marc Mauillon sngff Manuel Forcano (Hebrew), Jean Hache (French), Nejat Ferouse (Turkish) spkts ensemble; Les trompettes dejéricho; La Capella Reial de Catalunya; Hespèrion XXI (Montserrat Figueras sop Arianna Savall sngr/hp Andrew Lawrence-King hp Pierre Hamon rec Pedro Estevanperc) Jordi Savall Alia Vox ® © 1 AVSA9863 (143' • DDD) Includes 435-page book

I am very definitely in two minds about the Alia Vox method. On the one hand, one or two discs covering a huge range in time and space accompanied by what can only be described as an illustrated book (complete with bookmark) ought to provide ample food for thought and the sensation of setting out on an instructive and valuable journey. On the other, the risk is that the programme may be unsatisfactory, even arbitrary, as a sequence to be listened to, and the reality of the book is that it comprises the same texts in no fewer than eight languages.

Where there can be no doubt, of course, is in the theme chosen for such musical and textual elaboration: it is obvious that the idea ofJerusalem and its spiritual, historical, geographical and symbolic significance through the ages must be able to provide more than enough material for a whole series of discs, each with ample commentary. The problem therefore becomes, in a sense, one of compression: even two discs cannot do justice to the vast range of musical repertories related to the history of Jerusalem - Savall notes that "...from the thousand and one different stages in the rich history of Jerusalem, we have selected those that we felt to be the most significant, illustrating them through music, song and key texts, the whole forming a multicultural fresco which proposes something more than just a recording or concert programme". And therein lies the problem: what, exactly, does this set give us that is more than a recording or concert programme? My immediate response would be: "notbmg" It is, in essence, a long concert, or a long recording, but the texts coud be just as easily present in a concert programme, and the "genuine intercultural dialogue" Savall seeks could be, and has been, achieved more convincingly in a shorter time and, indeed, in real time.

So much for the doubts: in spite of them, these discs contain some magniflent music-making, and it is a fact that Savall has brought together musicians from a number of traditions to achieve this. Not that anyone listening will not recognise the Hespèrion XXI sound, of course: the vielles, viols, drones and percussion accompanying those warm Mediterranean voices have become so very a much a trademark that everything from a Sibylline Oracle sung to "Aramaic music" to Crusader songs and Cantigas de Santa Maria are identifiably the group's sonic territory. Even a Byzantine stavrotheotokion does not escape the treatment. So Jerusalem is very much recreated in the Hespèrion mould: how you respond to this will depend on your appreciation of the unique and very beautiful sound they create. Ivan Moody