The Whole Music Experience

Jordi Savall Hespèrion XXI & other groups El Nuevo Mundo Folias Criollas Aliavox/Harmonia Mundi Fans of early music know that if they wish to take a musical journey to the renaissance, baroque period, or even to King Louis XIV court, Jordi Savall and his ensembles can take them there. I’m not sure where the Savall-Figueras family comes up with the energy to release as many early music gems as they do, but I’m grateful as a music reviewer and armchair scholar. I also started thinking of these musicians as the musical equivalent of a royal Catalan family. They certainly play courtly music, colonial, rustic and otherwise. I’m still catching my breath after reviewing a Bach recording (The Brandenburg Concertos) by Jordi Savall recently. And now he and his musicians have united with early music and folkloric musicians in the Americas, “New World” where they explore colonial music that combined music of American Indians, Spanish settlers, missionaries, and African slaves. Whi...

J.S. Bach Les Six Concerts Brandebourgeois Le Concert des Nations/Jordi Savall Aliavox Heritage/Harmonia Mundi I’m certainly not a Bach scholar by any stretch, but I’ve been listening to J.S. Bach’s work during the past few years simply because I find the composer’s music healing. In my research, I have read many references to the perfect architecture of the baroque composer’s sacred and secular compositions. As a freelance music composer living during an era of patrons (church and aristocracy), much of the composer’s work was for hire. Virtuoso musicians, church officials, and members of the elite class would commission works, not just of Bach, but his contemporaries too. It’s not as if we live in an era void of musicians-for-hire because musical works are still commissioned and composers still make a living off of commissioned work. However, most of us non-classical, (outside of theatrical and film soundtrack work), musicians have a difficult time conceiving of writing m...

Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI Istanbul—Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723) Aliavox (distributed by Harmonia Mundi) I have never heard medieval or renaissance Turkish music before, though I have heard Turkish music played on traditional instruments as well as, Armenian and the music of Sephardic Jews. When I received Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI’s Istanbul in the mail, with its booklet and gorgeous music, I knew that reviewing the recording would require a steep learning curve, but with each pleasurable listen, I heard both familiar and unfamiliar instruments, familiar and unfamiliar modes. The experience was not totally new to my ears since I have attended my share of Oriental music concerts over the years and it seems that my DNA is predisposed to these modes because I never experienced an adjustment period coming from the West. Savall leaves his viol de gamba behind for this recording and plays a rebab (type of fiddle played vertical while resting on the lap, a vièle (another...