Savall La Folia

Jordi Savall - La Folia, 1490-1701 (1998) {Alia Vox AV9805}
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© 1998 Alia Vox | AV 9805
Classical / Renaissance / Baroque / Chamber Music

After years of playing the various Folias by Diego Ortiz, Antonio de Cabezón, Antonio Martín y Coll, Arcangelo Corelli and Marin Marais, it became clear to us that there were certain links between the origin and evolution of the important art of musical improvisation and variation and the viola da gamba, or bass viol, itself. In fact, it is no mere coincidence that, throughout the 16th century, and in places as different as France (Adrian Le Roy, 1551), Italy (Vicenzo Ruffo, 1564) and Germany (Matthäus Waissel, 1573), we find references in the various manuscripts and printed documents to the term “gamba”, used as a synonym for “Folia”.

On 10th December, 1553, at one of the highpoints in the Golden Age of Spanish music, there appeared in Rome the TRATTADO DE GLOSAS SOBRE CLAUSULAS Y OTROS GENEROS DE PUNTOS EN LA MUSICA DE VIOLONES NUEVAMENTE PUESTOS EN LUZ by Diego Ortiz, who was also known under the name “el Toledano”. An inevitable reference point for the study of instrumental performance practice in the 16th century, this work is of exceptional interest, both for its purely historical significance and for its artistic value, since it contains the finest examples of the known repertoire for viola da gamba (vihuela de arco or violone) and harpsichord in the Renaissance period.

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?

On 10th December, 1553, at one of the highpoints in the Golden Age of Spanish music, there appeared in Rome the TRATTADO DE GLOSAS SOBRE CLAUSULAS Y OTROS GENEROS DE PUNTOS EN LA MUSICA DE VIOLONES NUEVAMENTE PUESTOS EN LUZ by Diego Ortiz, who was also known under the name “el Toledano”. An inevitable reference point for the study of instrumental performance practice in the 16th century, this work is of exceptional interest, both for its purely historical significance and for its artistic value, since it contains the finest examples of the known repertoire for viola da gamba (vihuela de arco or violone) and harpsichord in the Renaissance period.

Jordi Savall - Erasmus von Rotterdam: Eloge de la Folie (2013) {6CD Box Set Alia Vox AVSA9895A+F}
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© 2013 Alia Vox | AVSA9895A+F
Classical / Renaissance / Vocal Music / Chamber Music

This new project is a Tribute to Erasmus (1466-1536), a Dutch Renaissance scholar, known as the 'Prince of the Humanists'. Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament and also wrote 'In Praise of Folly', 'Handbook of a Christian Knight' and many other works. Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation; but while he was critical of the abuses within the Church and called for reform, he kept his distance from Luther and Melancthon and continued to recognise the authority of the Pope. His middle of the road approach disappointed and even angered scholars in both camps. Jordi Savall regards him as a model of wisdom and tolerance.

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 & Hespèrion XXI - Altre Follie, 1500-1750 (2005) {Alia Vox AVSA9844}
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© 2005 Alia Vox | AVSA 9844
Classical / Renaissance / Baroque / Chamber Music

Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as the new, centralized power of the absolute state was established in most European nations, royal courts all over Europe became the very heart of cultural and artistic life in their respective countries. They assembled an elite of aristocratic courtiers who were expected to master the principles of poetry, dance and vocal and instrumental music, as much as they were supposed to follow a strict and complex etiquette in all aspects of daily social interaction, adopt a luxurious and ever-changing fashion code, or sustain a refined conversation with a lady.

Hespèrion XXI & Jordi Savall - Ostinato (2002) {Alia Vox AV 9820}
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© 2002 Alia Vox | AV 9820
Classical / Early Music / Baroque / Renaissance

Ostinato is an anthology which brings together the most representative works of the art of improvisation and of a musical form based on a unique concept of the basso, which is repeated sequentially throughout the compositions.

Between 1975 and 1983 Jordi Savall and the vocal and instrumental ensemble Hespèrion XX made a dozen recordings which remain indispensable to our knowledge of the richness and vitality of early Spanish music. They include performances not only of art music from the courts of Ferdinand and Isabella, and later Charles V and Philip II, but songs by women troubadours of the early 13th century, Sephardic romances and a justly famous recording of 14th-century pilgrim songs from the Llibre Vermell of Montserrat. Eight of these recordings were subsequently remastered for CD and are now brought together in this budget-priced Black Box.