Jordi Savall/Le Concert des Nations -- Quebec

[Helene]

Le festival d'ete de Quebec opened last Thursday, and as part of it, Jordi Savall and his Le Concert des Nations performed at the Palais Montcalm. The program was called "Tastes of the Musical Galant form Lully to Boccherini", with music by Lully, Biber, Corelli -- the concerto Balanchine used in "Square Dance" -- Avison, Rodriguez de Hita, and Boccherini. This concert sounded so much better than even the wonderful one in Berkeley, which was in a church with no sound-proofing whatsover and rather weak acoustics in general. The wood-lined Raoul Jobin Hall in Palais Montcalm is not only gorgeous, but its acoustics are very live. It is very sound-proof: Palais Montcalm is next to Scene Metro in Place d'Youville, one of the three main festival stages, and as we left the building, we heard the very amplified Mexican singer Lila Downs and her band.

Each of the pieces was rich and strong, using multiple techniques. (In the Boccherini, the cellists strummed their instruments like guitars.) Mr. Savall spoke in beautiful French to the audience. If I got the gist of it correctly, the first encore was a traditional French dance song played at weddings and celebrations, and the second was dance music from an opera, but he turned his head when he said its name, and I missed it. For their final encore, they repeated a movement of the Corelli, and "Square Dance" was once again playing in my head.

Starting with the Corelli, the strings were split into three, with the high strings split in two and the cellist, viola da gamba, and bass in the middle. Enrico Onofri was phenomenal on the violin concertino. It's rare to hear that much passion and pathos in most string playing in this period; he played it as if he were singing.

[Mashinka]

Thanks for that report. I am something of a fan and spent yesterday listening to a CD of Savall's that I've just bought of music by Tarquinio Merula, 'Su la Cetra Amorosa: Arie e capricci', with the singer Montserrat Figueras. Wonderful music that has the power to transport me to another time and place. Spanish baroque music is in general unjustly ignored.

[sunday]

Thanks for the report, Helene. I love the performances of those obscure, but great Baroque composers by Savall. He enjoys a deserved great respect in this part of Spain.

[bart]

I don't know Savell ( ), though I love the music of that period. I'll be checking this out on Amazon (click at top of page to help Ballet Talk . )

Sunday, didn't Boccherini spend much of his career in the Spanish court? Spanish music generally is almost unknown in the U.S., with exceptions like Albeniz, Falla and Granados. Last night, however, cable tv had a clip of Teresa Berganza singing some art songs of Jesus Guridi 920th century) which were truly wonderful. From the 18th century, however, not much is played.

Helene, I'm glad to know that you were visualizing Square Dance. I don't have anything like your powers of visual recall, so my own "playback in my head" when I hear this music -- I confess to mixing up the Corelli and the Vivaldi parts much of the time -- is a rather fudged impression of what I think Balanchine did or ought to have done. It's always difficult to sit still when I hear this music. (I have finally been able to suppress the awful memories of the square dance caller screeching away in the early performances.)

[sunday]

I don't know Savell ( ), though I love the music of that period. I'll be checking this out on Amazon (click at top of page to help Ballet Talk . )

Sunday, didn't Boccherini spend much of his career in the Spanish court? Spanish music generally is almost unknown in the U.S. Last night, however, cable tv had a clip of Teresa Berganza singing some art songs of Jesus Guridi 920th century) which were truly wonderful.

Helene, were you visualizing Square Dance with the Corelli? That's what happened to me the only time I heard the piece on its own. It was difficult to sit still in my seat.

The viola da gamba is a very sweet-sounding instrument. More so in Savalls' capable hands.

Yep, he changed his nationality to Spanish, died in Spain, and was interred at a Madrid church*. And Spanish classical music is not only almost unknown in the US, but also in Spain (yours truly included :blush: ). Truth to be told, Renaissance and Baroque music aren't mainstream and Monteverdi or Palestrina aren't as known as Mozart.

Also, Spanish folk music is very rich, as it comes from quite different origins. And it's not Flamenco only. If you are acquitted with Manuel de Falla music you'll have an idea.

*Curiously, I used to go to Mass to that same church when I was living in Madrid. If you are able to read Spanish, his Spanish wikipedia page is more broad that the English one

[bart]

One difficulty that late baroque and rococo composers face today is that they composed SO MUCH. I suppose this was due to their contractual obligations to courts or Church. To modern audiences, the differences between one piece and another are not always apparent. Every once in a while, a single piece -- Vivaldi's Four Seasons, for example -- stands out, captures attention, becomes comfortably familiar ... and then gets played to death.

Helene mentions acoustics. This kind of music is often performed by chamber groups in churches, where the stone surfaces blur the sounds, making it hard to notice nuances and details. Montreal was lucky to be able to hear this in a concert hall with wooden walls and good acoustics.

Boccherini was naturalized as a subject of Spain, but he was "nato a Lucca." My Italian grandfather, also born in Lucca, was very proud that his little city -- one of the wealthiest city states in Europe 800 or 900 years earlier, and an independent (more or less) country until the late 1840s -- had so much history. He never mentioned Boccherini, however. On the other hand, I heard an awful lot about Puccini.