Alberto Hemsi (1898-1975), musician, composer and musicologist, was born in to a Sephardic Jewish family in the small city of Cassaba in what was then the Ottoman Empire. He studied in Milan, lived from 1924 onwards on the island of Rhodes and from 1928 in Alexandria, Egypt. In 1957 he had to flee Egypt and went to France.

“Sepharad” is the Hebrew term for Spain. Sephardi Jewish communities were still living in many countries around the Mediterranean in the 1920s and 1930s. The term “Copla” acually refers to a strophic song, clearly structured through the lyrics. The collection of 60 compositions on this CD, based on Sephardic folk songs, are Hemsi's life's work. In order to make the folk songs known to a wide audience, Hemsi developed the form of an art-song that combined authentic popular elements with an extremely ambitious, sophisticated and colourful piano accompaniment .

The present recording is the first recording ever of the entire Coplas Sefardies cycle in its original version.