I think I first heard of Jordi Savall and his band of merry musicians
through a review in Stereophile many years back. At that point,
the band was known as Hesperion XX, but apparently they changed their name
to retain concordance with the new millenium. The first part of the name
derives from the Greek word Hesperia (itself derived from hespera
-- west), which was loosely used by the ancient greeks to refer to the
peninsulas of Italy and Iberia. I remember hearing the band on CD and being
utterly bewitched by the austere beauty of the songs they performed (their
repertoire is drawn mainly from musics of Spain from the 17th Century and
earlier), and by the sumptuous vocals of Savall's wife, the soprano Montserrat
Figueras. If this introduction intrigues you, go buy
the Hesperion
XX sampler (it's cheap!).
As Ting perfers to sit out most of these quieter shows, I was joined
by my buddy TC, and thanks to the folks at the Cal Performances box office,
we were installed just right of center in the front row. Can't complain
about that one bit! All told, the show ran close to two hours of magical
music.
I won't say much more because Allan Ulrich wrote a great review of
the show in his S.F.Chronicle article, Hesperion
XXI Leaps Centuries. Having made that declaration, I will register
my opinion that magical as the sarod may sound, it's out of place in an
ensemble performing period music of medieval Spain.
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