Jordi Savall | Le Concert des Nations

Taking its inspiration from Les Nations, a work by François Couperin symbolising the coming together of musical tastes and heralding a “European artistic space” which, far from being a recent invention, bears all the hallmarks of the Age of Enlightenment, Le Concert des Nations, the youngest of the ensembles directed by Jordi Savall, was founded in 1989.

Created during the preparation of the Canticum Beatae Virgine by Charpentier, this group arose out of the need for an orchestra of period instruments that could play the orchestral and symphonic repertoire from the Baroque to the Romantic periods (1600-1850). Le Concert des Nations is the first orchestra of its kind made up chiefly (although not exclusively) of musicians from Latin countries (Spain, Latin America, Italy, Portugal, France, etc.), all of whom are outstanding specialists in performance using period instruments. The impact of the ensemble’s recordings and concerts given in the major cities and music festivals over the last fifteen years has established its reputation as one of the best original instrument orchestras performing today, with a broad and varied repertoire that ranges from the earliest music to be composed for orchestra (L’Orchestre de Louis XIII, 1600-1650) to the masterpieces of the Romantic period, including the key Baroque and Classical composers.

Le Concert des Nations’s desire to increase audiences’ familiarity with a wide historical repertoire of exceptional quality through rigorous and, at the same time, revitalising performances was apparent from their earliest recordings: Charpentier, J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Handel, Marais, Arriaga, Beethoven, Purcell and Dumanoir. The ensemble’s most recent productions include works by Lully, Biber, J.S. Bach and Vivaldi, released under Jordi Savall’s exclusive, award-winning record label, Alia Vox.

Le Concert des Nations made its opera debut in 1992 with Martín y Soler’s Una cosa rara, continuing with a production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, which was staged in Barcelona in 1993, and subsequently in the Teatro Real in Madrid, in Beaune, Vienna and Metz, and in the re-opened Gran Teatre del Liceu, in Barcelona, in 2001. In 1995, the ensemble performed another opera by Martín y Soler, Il Burbero di Buon Cuore, staged in Montpellier, and in 2000 added to its opera repertoire Celos aun del Ayre matan, by Juan Hidalgo and Calderón de la Barca, performed in a concert version in Barcelona and Vienna. More recent productions include Vivaldi’s Farnace, staged at Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid (2001), also released as a CD, and Orfeo, recorded and released as a DVD by BBC/Opus Arte (2002).

Jordi Savall is an exceptional figure in today’s music world. For more than thirty years he has been devoted to the rediscovery of neglected musical treasures: thirty years of research, study and interpretation, both as violist and musical director. He has restored an essential repertoire to all those with ears to hear it. Beyond the happy few who already revered the instrument, he has created a wide audience for the viola da gamba, an instrument so refined that it takes us to the very brink of silence.

Together with Montserrat Figueras, he has founded three ensembles - Hespèrion XX, La Capella Reial and Le Concert des Nations; together, they explore and create a world of beauty and emotion which reaches out to millions of music-lovers world-wide and has established them as the leading exponents of so many neglected musical gems. One of the most multifariously gifted musicians of his generation, his career as a concert performer, teacher, researcher and creator of new projects, both musical and cultural, make him one of the principal architects of the current revaluation of historical music.

The pivotal part he played in Alain Corneau’s film Tous les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World), which won a César award for the best soundtrack, his intense concert activity (140 concerts per year), recording projects (six per year) and more recently the creation of his own record label, Alia Vox, is proof that early music does not have to be elitist or of interest to only to a minority, and that it can and indeed does appeal to an increasingly large and young audience. Like many other musicians, at the age of six Jordi Savall began his musical training as a member of the boys’ choir of Igualada (Barcelona), the town where he was born, and later studied the cello at the Barcelona Conservatoire, from which he graduated in 1964. In 1965, he began to teach himself the viola da gamba as well as studying ancient music (Ars Musicae). In 1968 he began his specialist musical training at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where in 1973 he succeeded his own master, August Wenzinger, and continues to give courses and master classes.

He has recorded over 160 CD. Jordi Savall’s numerous awards and distinctions include “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” (1988) from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication; the “Sant Jordi Cross” (1990) awarded by the Generalitat (Autonomous Government) of Catalonia; “Musician of the Year” (1992), awarded by Le Monde de la Musique; “Soloist of the Year” (1993) awarded by Victoires de la Musique; the “Gold Medal for Fine Arts” (1998) from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the Arts; Honorary Member of the Konzerthaus, Vienna (1999); Doctor honoris causa of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium (2000); “Victoire de la Musique” in recognition of his professional achievements (2002); the Gold Medal of the Parliament of Catalonia (2003), and the German “Preise der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” (2003).

2011-2012 Please do not use older versions of this biography. For any modifications, please contact  a r t e s y s t e m.