Savall Hesperion Xxi,

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Invocation a la Nuit - Musica Notturna (2008) [2CD] {10th Alia Vox Anniversary}
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© 2008 Alia Vox | AVSA 9861 A+B
Classical / Chamber Music / Vocal Music / Symphonies / Suites

Did you know that most Alia Vox albums were recorded between 1 and 4 am? Not only because of tight recording schedules, but also because the night creates an very special quality of silence… This double album is the best possible tribute to Alia Vox' short but intense history. Not just an 'anniversary CD': it is a fascinating musical journey, based not only on existing material, but also on unreleased recordings (Charpentier - CD2 track 5) and on future albums (CD2 track 1 was recorded for the upcoming project Jerusalem). Recordings from the Astrée catalogue are also included in this definitive overview of a major component of Jordi Savall's creative process: the night.

Jordi Savall is among the leading instrumentalists and conductors of the European early music scene, specializing in Renaissance, Baroque, and Medieval music. He took an interest in early music, and began learning the viola da gamba. He studied the gamba and early music research and practice with Wieland Kuijken in Brussels and August Wenzinger at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel. In 1968, Savall married the soprano Montserrat Figueras, who shared his interest in early music. With Figueras and other musicians interested in early Spanish music, he founded the ensemble Hespèrion XX in 1974. The ensemble took its name from an ancient name for the Western European region from Italy to Iberia. At the turn of the 21st century, the group changed its name to Hespèrion XXI.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Bal-Kan - Miel et Sang (2013) {3CD Set Alia Vox AVSA 9902}
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© 2013 Alia Vox | AVSA 9902
Classical / World Music / Chamber Music

The name of the Balkans has an unusually graphic etymology: having discovered the beauty of this pivotal part of Europe, which stretches from Italy to the Bosphorous, and the ruggedness of its people, who put up fierce resistance to invasion, the Turks chose to describe the region with the words Bal (Honey) and Kan (Blood). Honey & Blood: never was there so apt a metaphor! So much richness and drama packed into such a small area is guaranteed to fire the imagination of historians and artists, especially musicians. Thanks to the magic of an ambitious programme built around the cycles of life, Jordi Savall invites us to travel the length and breadth of a region which has always had more than its share of human and historical drama. 230 minutes of music scan the full range of human emotions illuminated by 1001 different musical traditions, all of which nevertheless spring from a common source. "The future belongs to those with the longest memory", wrote Nietzsche. Once more, Jordi Savall brilliantly demonstrates that music is a key component of the collective memory that enables us to face our future. This lavishly documented CD-Book, translated into 12 languages, is a must for any self-respecting collector.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Orient-Occident 1200-1700 (2006) {Alia Vox}
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© 2006 Alia Vox | AVSA 9848
Classical / World Music / Medieval

This remarkable recording, which juxtaposes 13th- and 14th-century Spanish and Italian monodic instrumental pieces with similar ones from various living Eastern traditions, reveals the extraordinary extent to which they share a common musical language. Indeed, as a Persian or Moroccan dance is followed by an Italian istampitta or Spanish saltarello, an innocent ear would often struggle to decide which piece originated where - proof that to travel in space is to travel in time.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Villancicos Y Danzas Criollas (2003) {Alia Vox AV9834}
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© 2003 Alia Vox | AV9834
Classical / Chamber Music / Vocal Music / Baroque / Renaissance / World Music

For the uninitiated, the music on Jordi Savall's new Villancicos y danzas criollas disc is a revelation, gleefully crossing lines between sacred and secular, artistic and popular, and, most strikingly, European, African, and Amerindian. The selections included originated between the early 1500s and the early 1700s, and, unlike those on the Harp Consort's similar Missa Mexicana disc, come from Spain as well as the New World. Indeed, the two recordings together offer a perfect introduction to this fascinating, unfailingly enjoyable and often comic repertory.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Esprit d'Armenie (2012) {Alia Vox AVSA 9892}
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© 2012 Alia Vox | AVSA 9892
Classical / Chamber Music / World Music

This album is a tribute to Armenia and to the Armenian musicians who have played alongside Jordi Savall and his wife Montserrat Figueras over the past several years. The repertoire, culled from Hesperion XXI's fascinating live programs, ranges from lively to contemplative. All of the unique and powerful music on Armenian Spirit is beautifully played using traditional instruments including the duduk, an ancient double-reed instrument with a deeply moving sound quality. Jordi Savall illuminates this music with a faultless musical flair, driven by his endless curiosity and supreme musicianship. The disc is accompanied by a lavishly documented and richly illustrated booklet.

Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XXI - Venezia Millenaria 700-1797 (2018) {Alia Vox Official Digital Download AVSA9925}
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© 2018 Alia Vox | AVSA9925
Classical / Early Music / Medieval / Renaissance / Baroque / Chamber Music / Vocal Music

Over 1,000 years, from the Byzantine Empire to the Napoleonic Wars, Venice played a key role in shaping the Western music. Jordi Savall and his ensembles pay a tribute to a place that fully profited from its priviliged links with the Orient while hosting geniuses like Monteverdi, Gabrieli and Vivaldi. As you have come to expect from Alia Vox, this CD-book is lavishly illustrated and documented.

Purcell’s fifteen Fantazias have come down to us as a manuscript kept at the British Museum, most of whose pieces are dated. As they would not have aroused any interest at the time, the young composer did not even attempt to have them published, and they only appeared in print, edited by Peter Warlock, in 1927! This unique collection of pieces of from three to seven parts, a true “sum” of polyphonic thinking, to which only Bach’s Musical Offering and Art of Fugue may be compared, are the product, incredible as it may seem, of a very young composer of twenty-one at the beginning of his all too-short career. Written during the summer of 1680, they bring two centuries of uninterrupted instrumental tradition in England to a crowning conclusion.

Jordi Savall - La Barcha d'Amore 1563-1685 - Hespèrion XXI & Le Concert des Nations (2008) {Alia Vox AV 9811}
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© 2008 Alia Vox | AV 9811
Classical / Baroque / Renaissance

This 68-minute program–a compilation of recordings made by Jordi Savall, Montserrat Figueras & Co. during the years 1976 and 2008 (including several selections originally released on dhm and Virgin Classics)–proved one of those purely pleasurable, effortlessly rewarding listening sessions that only rarely come along. We don't often review compilations drawn from multiple recordings made in different venues and over many years–they're so often programmatically disjointed and sonically varied; but in this case it doesn't matter. The music is compatible stylistically and these performers are so consistent in the quality and care and vitality of their performances that, well, what's 30 years or so?