Carnegie Hall

Jordi Savall, whose music “testifies to a common cultural inheritance of infinite variety” (The Guardian), is one of the most versatile musicians of his generation. For more than 50 years, he has rescued musical gems from the obscurity of neglect and oblivion and given them back for all to enjoy. A tireless researcher into early music, he interprets and performs the repertoire both as a gambist and as a conductor. His activities as a concert performer, teacher, researcher, and creator of new musical and cultural projects have made him a leading figure in the reappraisal of historical music. Together with Montserrat Figueras (1942–2011), he founded the ensembles Hespèrion XXI (1974), La Capella Reial de Catalunya (1987), and Le Concert des Nations (1989), with whom he explores and creates a world of emotion and beauty shared with millions of early music enthusiasts around the world.

With his key participation in Alain Corneau’s film Tous les matins du monde (winner of the César Award for Best Original Score), his intense concert activity (approximately 140 concerts per year), his record releases (six recordings per year), and the creation—together with Montserrat Figueras in 1998—of the record label Alia Vox, Mr. Savall has shown that early music does not have to be elitist, but rather that it appeals to an increasingly wide and diverse audience of all age groups.

Mr. Savall has recorded and released more than 230 albums that cover the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical music repertoires, with a special focus on the Hispanic and Mediterranean musical heritage, receiving many awards and distinctions, including MIDEM Classical, International Classical Music, and Grammy awards. His concert programs have made music an instrument for understanding and peace between different, and sometimes warring, peoples and cultures. Accordingly, guest artists appearing with his ensembles include Arab, Israeli, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Afghan, Mexican, and North American musicians. In 2008, Mr. Savall was appointed European Union Ambassador for intercultural dialogue and, together with Montserrat Figueras, was named an artist for peace by UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors.

Mr. Savall performs on a treble viol by Barak Norman from ca. 1700 and a bass viol by Pellegrino Zanetti from Venice 1553. Alia Vox is the exclusive producer of recordings by Mr. Savall and his ensembles.

Early music’s most important value stems from its ability as a universal artistic language to transmit feelings, emotions, and ancestral ideas that, even today, can enthrall the contemporary listener. With a repertoire that encompasses the period between the 10th and 18th centuries, Hespèrion XXI searches continuously for new points of union between the East and West, with a clear desire for integration and for the recovery of international musical heritage—especially that of the Mediterranean basin and its links to the Americas.

In 1974, Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras, together with Lorenzo Alpert and Hopkinson Smith, founded the early music ensemble Hespèrion XX in Basel to recover and share the rich and fascinating repertoire of music dating before the 19th century. The ensemble focused on historical criteria and the use of original instruments. The name Hespèrion means “an inhabitant of Hesperia,” which in ancient Greek referred to the two western-most European peninsulas: the Iberian and the Italian. It was also the name given to the planet Venus as it appeared in the west. At the turn of the 21st century, Hespèrion XX became known as Hespèrion XXI.

Today, Hespèrion XXI is central to the understanding of the music of the period between the Middle Ages and the Baroque. Its efforts to recover works, scores, instruments, and unpublished documents have dual benefits: On one hand, its rigorous research provides new information and contributes to our shared understanding of the historical period, and on the other hand, the exquisite performances enable people to freely enjoy the aesthetic and spiritual delicacy of the works of this time.

From the beginning, Hespèrion XXI set out on a clearly innovative and artistic course that would lead to the establishment of a school in the field of early music. The group conceived, and continues to conceive, early music as an experimental musical tool with which it seeks the greatest beauty and expression. Any musician in the field of early music will have a commitment to the original spirit of each work and learns to connect with it by studying the composer, the instruments of the period, the work itself, and the circumstances surrounding it. But to be a true craftsman in the art of music, Hespèrion XXI believes musicians are also obligated to make decisions about the piece being played: A musician’s capacity to connect the past with the present and to connect culture with its dissemination depend on skill, creativity, and capacity to express emotion through the music.

Hespèrion XXI’s repertoire highlights music of a diverse array of historical sources, including the music of Sephardic Jews, Castilian romances, pieces from the Spanish Golden Age, and Europa de les Nacions. Thanks to the outstanding contribution of numerous musicians and collaborators who have worked with the ensemble, Hespèrion XXI still plays a key role in the recovery and reappraisal of the musical heritage, and one that has great resonance throughout the world. The group has produced more than 60 albums and performs concerts around the world, appearing regularly at the great international festivals of early music.