Exaltation Yaniv d'Or & Ensemble NAYA

• Yaniv d'Or (1975 - ):
• 1 Exaltation (Arr. Ensemble NAYA) 05:17
• Alfonso X (1221 - 1284): Cantigas de Santa Maria:
• 2 No. 10, Rosa das rosas 02:57
• Jean-Baptiste Besard (1567 - 1625):
• 3 Ma belle, si ton âme 03:43
• Salamone Rossi (1570 - 1630):
• 4 Praise the Lord 02:12
• Traditional:
• 5 God of Awe 03:10
• 6 Haven't I Told You? 06:43
• 7 A la Nana y a la Buba 02:27
• Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (1583 - 1643): Arie musicali per cantarsi, Book 1:
• 8 Se l'aura spira tutta vezzosa 02:36
• Traditional:
• 9 La Mañana de San Juan 04:00
• 10 With Your Eternal Love 04:38
• 11 Ya viene el cativo 05:37
• 12 Days of My Winter (Arr. Shem-Tov Levi) 05:19
• 13 Mummy, Dear Mummy, Don'y Make Me Cry 05:22
• 14 On the Way to Oskudara 04:21
• 15 When I Saw My Love 04:38
• Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946): 7 Canciones Populares Españolas:
• 16 No. 5, Nana 07:13
• Total Runtime 01:10:13

Info for Exaltation

Exaltation is the third recording in a trilogy by singer Yaniv d’Or with Ensemble NAYA. It follows Liquefacta est released in 2013, which contained settings of the Song of Solomon, and Latino Ladino in 2015 (8.573566), which focused on music of the Sephardic diaspora after the 1492 expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain. Exaltation is an essentially joyful album celebrating the spirit that binds the wandering communities, the gods they worship and the hopes they share for loving co-existence.

The contents are connected in twos and threes. D’Or speaks of three themes – distance, humanity and religion – interweaving through the tracks. The first song is the title track, Exaltation, composed by d’Or himself with elements of the three faiths, Judaism in the Hebrew prayer Shema Israel (‘Hear, O Israel’), Islam in the Arab affirmation Allah Hu (‘God is’) and Christianity in the opening words of Psalm 89, Misericordias domini (‘The Mercy of the Lord’). The psalms of David are sacred in all three beliefs.

A meditative drone enters this opening number, played by Marvin Dillman on the didgeridoo, an instrument native to Australia and dating back almost two thousand years, distant both in place and time. The group NAYA is an aural representation of the diaspora, combining instruments of different cultures and ages. Authenticity is not a consideration here. Nor is it a case of wandering exiles for whom any instrument will do.

The didgeridoo’s fellow wind instrument is the ney flute which was played by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia three thousand years ago. It is played here by Murat Cakmaz. The ney’s plaintive tone features in the second track, Rosa das Rosas (‘Rose of Roses’) alongside the Flamenco guitar (Eyal Leber) and the viola da gamba (Amit Tiefenbrunn), both of Spanish origin and both indebted for their dissemination to migrating communities leaving Spain. Their origins lay in an enlightened culture which in the second half of the 13th century was the norm at a Spanish court comprising equal numbers of Christians, Jews and Muslims under Alfonso X el Sabio (‘the Wise’), king of Castile from 1252 to 1284. Musical instrument manufacture thrived in the peaceful

Yaniv d'Or, countertenor
Ensemble Naya

Yaniv d’Or
Yaniv’s unique countertenor voice has made him one of the rising stars of the modern international music scene. The British-Israeli d’Or studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, receiving the International Vocal Art Institution Prize and the Gottesman Award. His operatic repertoire includes Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Tolomeo), Rinaldo (Rinaldo), Susannah (Joacim) and Xerxes (Arsamene), Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Orfeo), Haydn’s Orlando paladino (Medoro) Cavalli’s Giasone (Delfa) and Orion (Orion), Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Sorcerer and Spirit), Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon) and Death in Venice (Voice of Apollo), Vivaldi’s La verità in cimento (Melindo) and, most recently, Salamone Rossi in The Siblings of Mantua, a unique production by the Drottningholm Slottsteater Stockholm featuring music by Salamone Rossi, Claudio Monteverdi, traditional sephardi ladino and d’Or’s own compositions. In concert he performs Lieder, oratorios and traditional repertoire at venues such as the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Centre, the Royal Festival Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, York Minster Cathedral, Oslo Opera House, AMUZ Antwerp, the Palau de la Música Barcelona, the Dôme des Invalides and the Philharmonie de Paris. He recently performed a new piece at the Banqueting House, London, in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II. A prolific recording artist, Yaniv d’Or is the recipient of the Gramophone Award for his album Liquefacta Est... with Ensemble NAYA and BBC Magazine’s Album Choice for Latino Ladino (Naxos 8.573566).

Ensemble NAYA
is a collection of outstanding musicians from multicultural backgrounds, who share their passion for exploring and performing Western classical music, as well as the music of many other cultures from around the world. The group was established following an exciting and successful musical partnership at the Gothenburg Opera in Sweden in 2008. The eight musicians of Ensemble NAYA dedicate themselves to creating bridges between different cultures and to bringing people together, regardless of their faith or religion. Ensemble NAYA is already forging exciting collaborations with some of today’s leading music specialists, such as Ensemble Barrocade, whose collaboration resulted in their joint album Latino Ladino. The album rapidly became a bestseller and garnered several awards resulting in further invitations for the ensemble to perform together on major international stages.

Booklet for Exaltation