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Jordi Savall

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Jordi Savall is a Spanish conductor, composer and viol player, born in 1941 in the Catalan town of Igualada. He started in the school choir at six, studied from 1959 to 1965 at the conservatoire of Barcelona and specialised in early music. From 1968 to 1970 he studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel under August Wenzinger, whom he succeeded in 1974 as teacher of the viola da gamba. Since the 1970s he has been one of the great names in early music. He made the viol family known to a broad audience.

Music and breakthrough

In 1974 he founded, with his wife, the soprano Montserrat Figueras, Lorenzo Alpert and Hopkinson Smith, the ensemble Hespèrion XX, since 2000 Hespèrion XXI. It played with great liveliness and at the same time maximum historical accuracy. In 1987 he founded La Capella Reial de Catalunya in Barcelona, a vocal ensemble for music from before the eighteenth century. In 1989 followed Le Concert des Nations, a Baroque orchestra that also plays Classical and Romantic repertoire. He made more than two hundred recordings, including of viol music from France, such as Pièces de viole du second Livre from 1975.

Influence

Savall plays music from the Middle Ages to the Romantic period and also records music from outside Europe. For Les Routes de l'Esclavage from 2017 he worked with African musicians of the ensemble 3MA. In the Orient-Occident projects he played, with musicians from the Middle East, Arabic, Christian and Sephardic music from medieval Al-Andalus, Syria, Morocco and Turkey. He also founded festivals, such as the Festival musique et histoire in Fontfroide and the Jordi Savall Festival in Catalan monasteries.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to one of his recordings of French viol music, such as Pièces de viole du second Livre, and notice the warm, singing tone of the viol and how it differs from a cello.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists