Hesperion XXI
Friday, March 16th, 2001
@ First Congregational Church
Berkeley, California
  
All Photos © 2001 Randy Vogel
  
  

YESTERDAY
  
 Jordi Savall

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.
 

 the Ensemble in Action
 Sarod Improvisation
 Ready
 All Together
 Bow!
  

TOMORROW