Si me llaman

EL CORTESANO (José Hernández-Pastor, countertenor, and Ariel Abramovich, vihuela) present their second CD, “Si me llaman ...” (Carpe Diem CD-16276), featuring the world premiere recording of the “libro de música de vihuela” by Spanish Renaissance composer Diego Pisador, published in 1552 in Salamanca, Spain.

The “libro de música de vihuela” is an unusual and exciting work from the so-called “Spanish Golden Age” in many respects. The composer and vihuela player Diego Pisador collected not only his own song and instrumental compositions, but also works by other European composers of his time. The book is thus an anthology of the best-known and most popular songs of the Spanish Renaissance, but it is also influenced by Pisador's personal taste and understanding of music. For him, this collection was his life's work.

Most of the songs are villancicos, small one-verse song forms, almost miniatures, which represent poetic thoughts set to music. In addition, there are romances, verse songs that tell stories, villanescas, small polyphonic song sets from the Italian madrigal tradition, and some technically highly difficult solo works for the vihuela.

José Hernández-Pastor and Ariel Abramovich have been working together for over 10 years and have devoted their musicianship entirely to researching the music of the Spanish Renaissance. As a result, their interpretation is highly sophisticated, historically grounded, and yet very personal and close to the essence of the music: an intimate dialogue between text and sound, a careful interpretation of the sensitive poetry that emerged during this happy period of Spanish culture.

This CD was recorded in the heart of southern Spain, in the historic old town of Seville. The sound of modern Iberian culture complements the art of a bygone era in a mysterious way—here, worlds that could not be more different on the surface are woven together into an iridescent portrait of human experience.