Jordi Savall

Artist website

Unanimously recognized as one ot the most important performers of ancient music at the present time, Jordi Savall is amply one of the most multi-faceted musical personalities of his generation: viol player, conductor and creator of an unmistakable style, his concert, pedagogical and research activities place him among the main architects of the present process of revaluation of historical music. With his essential contribution to Alain Corneau’s film Tous les matins du monde (which has been awarded with Seven Cesars, including soundtrack and recently re-issued by Alia Vox), he has shown that ancient music is not necessarily elitist or for minorities and that it can interest an increasingly younger and wider audience. He has made also the soundtracks of the films Jeanne la Pucelle (1993) by Jacques Rivette, El pájaro de la felicidad (1993) by Pilar Miró and Marquise (1997) by Vera Belmont.

Jordi Savall was born in Igualada (Barcelona) in 1941. His musical career started when he was 6 years old: musical experience, practice and training from the heart of his home town children’s choir and musical and cello education that he finishes in the “Conservatori Superior de Música de Barcelona” in 1965. From 1968, he completes his training in the “Schola Cantorum Basiliensis” (Switzerland) where he succeeds his master, August Wenzinger, in 1973. A pioneer eager for new horizons, he soon realises the importance of ancient music.

From 1970, he records and makes himself known to the public as a soloist for the masterpieces of the violistic repertoire and he is quickly recognized by the international critique as one of the greatest and most gifted performers of the viola da gamba. He is a tireless discoverer of forgotten compositions and creates, from 1974 to 1989, the different ensembles that enable him to perform a very wide repertoire, from the Middle Ages to the first years of the nineteenth century. In 1974, he sets up Hespèrion XX together with the soprano Montserrat Figueras, Hopkinson Smith and Lorenzo Alpert, “La Capella Reial de Catalunya” (1987), set up by a group of soloist singers and a vocal ensemble with the aim of performing Catalan, Spanish and mostly Mediterranean music dating before 1800 and “Le Concert des Nations” (1989), a baroque and classical orchestra which assembles young musicians coming from all European countries who are specialized in playing on original instruments.

During his more than twenty-five years of intense activity, Jordi Savall has been awarded many honours. In 1988 he was nominated “Officier of l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture. In 1990, The Generalitat de Catalunya awarded him the “Creu de Sant Jordi.” In 1992 he was nominated “Musician of the Year” by Le Monde de la Musique, in 1993 “Soliste de l’Année” on the occasion of the “8èmes Victoires de la Musique” and in January 2002 he received another “Victoire de la Musique” for the 10th Edition of Tous les matins du monde. In 1998 Jordi Savall received the “Medalla de Oro de las Bellas Artes” from the Spanish Culture and Education Ministry and in 1999 he was named Honorary Member of the Vienna Konzerthaus. In May 2001 Jordi Savall received the title of “Doctor Honoris Causa” of the “Université Catholique de Louvain” (Belgium) and was awarded in November 2003 in Berlin with the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik” for the ensemble of his career.

His important discography (more than one hundred recordings with EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Astrée-Auvidis, Fontalis) has been awarded many times since 1988 up until the present day. In 1998, with Montserrat Figueras, Jordi Savall has set up a new record label called Alia Vox (for which he is recording in exclusivity) which has received an outstanding welcome from the press and the audience. Thirty-five titles have been published so far, from solo viola da gamba recitals to vocal music performed by Montserrat Figueras or “La Capella Reial de Catalunya”, from projects with small ensemble, consort of viols and orchestra to opera. Other releases are an Antonio Vivaldi album; La Viola da gamba in Concerto performed by “Le Concert des Nations” and Jordi Savall (AV9835); and El Misteri d’Elx (The Mystery of Elche), a traditional annual ceremony taking place in Elche (South-Eastern Spain) and celebrating the feast of Assumption.

Translated by Jacqueline Minett

The Met called the series “Celebrating Jordi Savall,” and, amid the usual parade of famous, anonymous maestros, here, finally, was a man worth celebrating. Savall is not only a performer of genius but also a conductor, a scholar, a teacher, a concert impresario (he founded the Hespèrion XXI, Le Concert des Nations, and La Capella Reial de Catalunya ensembles, all of which accompanied him to New York), a record-label director (his is called Alia Vox), a minor film personality (he played on the soundtrack of the 1991 movie “Tous les Matins du Monde”), and the patriarch of a formidable musical family. –The New Yorker  May 2, 2005

The term ''early-music superstar'' is surely an oxymoron. But in the most understated of repertory, on the most subdued of instruments and in the most self-effacing way, Jordi Savall comes close to being one. –The New York Times  April 13,  2005