Auvidis Astrée

Jordi Savall - Monteverdi - Madrigali Guerrieri Et Amorosi, Libro Ottavo (1995) {Astrée-Auvidis E 8546}
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© 1995 Auvidis / Astrée | E 8546
Classical / Baroque / Renaissance

Monteverdi's madrigals were the laboratory in which he sought the connections between music and the emotions, and none are more moving and evocative than those of his eighth and final book, the "Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi," (1638). This release offers only a selection, but puts the music's drama in gratifyingly high relief. It's a beautifully sung, ravishingly played and lushly recorded collection, "Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi," by Jordi Savall and La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Astree E 8546). Dynamics are supple, coloration is flexible and expressive dissonances are pointed up in a way that gives works like "Lamento della Ninfa" and "Gira il nemico" an unusually vivid edge.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XX - Juan Del Enzina - Romances & Villancicos (1991) {Astrée-Auvidis E 8707}
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© 1991 Auvidis / Astrée | E 8707
Classical / Renaissance

Jordi Savall (born 1941), one of the world's leading players of the viola da gamba, founded the ensemble Hespиrion XX in 1974. Savall's goal — and that of co-founders Montserrat Figueras, Hopkinson Smith, and Lorenzo Alpert — was to explore lesser-known repertories of the European Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque periods; their special love has been early Spanish music. The group has toured over five continents and produced well over 50 recordings (many on the Astree Audivis label). The group's membership changes with the repertory of an individual recording or performance project, and with the particular orchestration envisioned by Savall.

Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XX - Alfonso X El Sabio - Cantigas de Santa Maria (1993) {Astrée-Auvidis E 8508}
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© 1993 Auvidis / Astrée | E 8508
Classical / Medieval / Chamber Music

Jordi Savall, once more time, shares with us a beautiful program of instrumentals and chorals pieces from the middle age. Alfons X El Sabio Cantigas are the most popular music pieces about this period, but also really majestic. The sound of this album is really magic. A very good choice for a first approach…

Jordi Savall - Cristóbal De Morales (ca.1500-1553) - Officium Defunctorum & Missa Pro Defunctis (1992) {Astrée-Naïve ES 9926 rel 1999}
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© 1992, 1999 Auvidis / Astrée / Naïve | ES 9935
Classical / Renaissance / Sacred

Morales's five-part setting of the Requiem is one of the masterpieces of the 16th century and was actually published twice during his lifetime. The 'Missa pro defunctis' follows the customary pattern of the time. Each section begins with a unison Gregorian intonation, which then continues as a cantus firmus in the upper part as the other voices spin a polyphonic texture underneath. The work avoids obvious madrigalisms, but maintains an austere, meditative texture, which is both spiritual and moving.

Jordi Savall - La Lira d'Esperia: La Viele Medievale (1996) {Auvidis E 8547}
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© 1996 Auvidis / Astree | E 8547
Classical / Chamber Music / Medieval Fiddle

Savall's notes make it clear that his intention was not so much to re-create a musical performance of the time as to pay tribute to the jongleurs in pieces that re-create ``a certain art of sounding the bow.'' The re-creations draw on what have become almost stereotypical melodic and rhythmic figures of the music of the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian cultures of the Middle Ages, periodically spiced, as in the Danza del viento, with spiky rhythms that could plausibly have originated in modern jazz improvisation.

Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XX - Folias & Canarios (1994) {Astrée E 8516}
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© 1994 Auvidis / Astrée | E 8516
Classical / Renaissance / Baroque

Savall and Hesperion XXI often return to the same material, almost obsessively; yet this repertory - the interface of early Iberian art music and the traditional - sustains endless re-visiting and re-interpretation; there can never be one definitive interpretation of this endlessly rewarding music, as Renaissance and Baroque composers knew - producing as they did endless variations on traditional themes which had woven their way from the popular sphere to the realm of 'art' music. Some of these bass melodies are presented here - the 'Follia' and 'Canaries' -and it is wonderful that Savall has the artistic freedom to perform versions of these again and again on his own label, Alia Vox.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XX - Musicque de Joye (1978) {Astrée–Auvidis E7724 rel 1987}
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© 1978, 1987 Astrée / Auvidis | E 7724
Classical / Renaissance / Vocal Music / Chamber Music

Around the mid-16th century a collection of instrumental music titled Joyous Music (Musique de Joye) appeared in the French city of Lyons. Its contents featured music "appropriate for the human voice" and for "learning how to play spinets, violins, and flutes"–primarily in the form of dances such as pavanes, galliards, and branles. This recording–one of the finest of its kind in the catalog–gives us a generous sampling of the collection's great variety of pieces, which are played to near-perfection by an all-star lineup of early music specialists who perform on assorted viols, flutes, lute and guitar, spinet, and percussion. Three of the tracks are songs, expertly sung by soprano Montserrat Figueras–especially the charming "Il estoit une fillette" by Janequin.

Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XX - Couperin - Les Apothéoses (1986) {Astrée-Auvidis E 7709}
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© 1986 Astrée (Auvidis) | E 7709
Classical / Baroque / Chamber Music

Couperin’s synthesis of French and Italian styles reached a peak in two works of the 1720s which reveal his refined assimilation of their contrasting essentials. The shorter of them, L’apothéose de Corelli, pays tribute to Couperin’s older Italian contemporary in a Grande sonade en trio. L’apothéose de Lully, containing elements both of sonata and suite, is more complex, with a programmatic element signposted with carefully positioned tempo markings and a profusion of descriptive titles. Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XX provide lively, idiomatic performances employing a mixed ensemble – Couperin did not specify instrumentation; but some readers may, like me, find the spoken introduction to their movements irritating, especially since they are reproduced in the accompanying leaflet.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XX - Ensaladas, 15th-17th Century (1987) {Astrée-Auvidis E 7742}
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© 1987 Astrée / Auvidis | E 7742
Classical / Renaissance / Vocal Music

The Ensalada (musical salad) is a poetical work which combines lines in different languages, as well as instrumental sonatas. It is rooted in the medieval practice of singing different texts simultaneously, and incorporates well-known romances and madrigalist elements. Generally based on stories from Christ birth, ensaladas a big portrait, a la Janequin, occupying a midway position between art and folk music.

Jordi Savall & La Capella Reial - Monteverdi - Vespro Della Beata Vergine, 1610 (1989) {2CD Astrée-Auvidis E 8719}
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© 1989 Astrée / Auvidis | E 8719
Classical / Renaissance / Baroque / Choral

There are more than one dozen recordings of Monteverdi's great masterpiece, the Vespers of 1610, a distinction reserved for very few works and composers from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. With this kind of attention, you'd think that this substantial work for choir, soloists, and instruments would be more easily accessible–but it is in fact a structurally complex and musically intricate compilation of hymns, antiphons, and psalms, concluding with a magnificent setting of the Magnificat. Most recordings can't seem to overcome the strategic and technical problems of presenting such a three-dimensional work on a recording. But this one is different: the music literally comes alive and grabs our attention. If you're in the market for Monteverdi's Vespers, look no further. This is the most dynamic, dramatic version on disc.