Biography
Jordi Savall entered the world in 1941 and has since established himself among the foremost interpreters of the viola da gamba. In 1974 he created the ensemble Hespèrion XX together with Montserrat Figueras, Hopkinson Smith, and Lorenzo Alpert. Their shared purpose was to delve into repertories of the European Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque that had received little attention, with a particular emphasis on the music of early Spain. The ensemble has traveled across five continents and issued more than fifty recordings, the majority appearing on the Astrée Audivis label. Personnel shift according to the program at hand and to the instrumental forces Savall chooses for each project.
Among the distinguished early-music figures who have worked repeatedly with Savall on Hespèrion recordings are the founding members Figueras, heard as soprano, and Smith, performing on plucked strings, along with Pedro Memelsdorff on recorder, Andrew Lawrence-King on harps, Rolf Lislevand on guitar, theorbo, and vihuela, Ton Koopman at the harpsichord, Bruce Dickey on cornetto, and Richard Cheetham on sackbut. In certain chamber works, such as the fantasias of Henry Purcell, the group restricts itself to a viol consort; Savall has made a well-known case for presenting J.S. Bach’s Die Kunst der Fugue in the same manner, citing the resulting transparency and clarity of the contrapuntal lines. Larger compositions, among them the Couperin Apothéoses, prompt an expanded palette that incorporates vocal forces supplied by the Capella Reial de Catalunya or Philippe Herreweghe’s Collegium Vocale.
When the ensemble turns to early Spanish sources—from the Cantigas de Santa Maria through the Cancionero de la Columbina and the Cancionero Musicale del Palacio—it cultivates a pronounced Moorish coloration comparable to that achieved a generation earlier by Thomas Binkley and René Clemencic. Across every repertory Hespèrion XX unites technical refinement and virtuosity with imaginative scorings and a resonant sonority that honors the life of each individual note. The vocal manner of its singers occasionally echoes the distinctive pulsation characteristic of Savall’s own viol playing, a resemblance audible, for example, in their recording of the Morales Requiem. One prominent musicologist has faulted the ensemble for an underlying romanticism in its sound; nevertheless, its vigorous performances have drawn one of the broadest and most devoted followings in the early-music field.
Among the distinguished early-music figures who have worked repeatedly with Savall on Hespèrion recordings are the founding members Figueras, heard as soprano, and Smith, performing on plucked strings, along with Pedro Memelsdorff on recorder, Andrew Lawrence-King on harps, Rolf Lislevand on guitar, theorbo, and vihuela, Ton Koopman at the harpsichord, Bruce Dickey on cornetto, and Richard Cheetham on sackbut. In certain chamber works, such as the fantasias of Henry Purcell, the group restricts itself to a viol consort; Savall has made a well-known case for presenting J.S. Bach’s Die Kunst der Fugue in the same manner, citing the resulting transparency and clarity of the contrapuntal lines. Larger compositions, among them the Couperin Apothéoses, prompt an expanded palette that incorporates vocal forces supplied by the Capella Reial de Catalunya or Philippe Herreweghe’s Collegium Vocale.
When the ensemble turns to early Spanish sources—from the Cantigas de Santa Maria through the Cancionero de la Columbina and the Cancionero Musicale del Palacio—it cultivates a pronounced Moorish coloration comparable to that achieved a generation earlier by Thomas Binkley and René Clemencic. Across every repertory Hespèrion XX unites technical refinement and virtuosity with imaginative scorings and a resonant sonority that honors the life of each individual note. The vocal manner of its singers occasionally echoes the distinctive pulsation characteristic of Savall’s own viol playing, a resemblance audible, for example, in their recording of the Morales Requiem. One prominent musicologist has faulted the ensemble for an underlying romanticism in its sound; nevertheless, its vigorous performances have drawn one of the broadest and most devoted followings in the early-music field.