A CHAMPION FOR THE VIOL

Viol-player and conductor Jordi Sayan talks to Mark Wiggins

Jordi SavaII with Gerard Depardieu who plays Mann Marais in the recent Alain Comeau film "Tous lea matins du monde" [photo: Auvidis/Dracirb musician Jordi SavaII reveals 20 years' work in a quite remarkable range of achievement. That this conductor, viola da gambist and consort player is only 50 makes it appear all the more unlikely that one person has traversed the kaleidoscope of musical style presented by the troubadours, viol music from Dowland, Hume and Purcell, onwards to the French Baroque tradition of Marais and Couperin, yet farther into the world of Bach, and resting—for the time being—after some 700 years, in the hands of Mozart and his Spanish contemporary, Vicente Martin y Soler. And all this whilst concentrating on his beloved Spanish Renaissance music (with a nod also to Monteverdi and the Italians). Yet the Barcelona-based Sava!l explained this fecundity away with typical modesty: "I have tried to conserve the philosophy that one of the biggest dangers for a musician is specialization. Recently, after working for a month on operas by Martin y Soler, I took up my viol and played Couperin and Marais. This was a change which re-stimulated my essential spirit."

The ability to pick and choose the elements of a musical life—particu the Brahms sonatas—not technically, and I knew the interpretations of Pablo Casals [his elder compatriot] and Pierre Fournier—because for me the possibilities of bringing something personal to this music were quite limited. I looked around and found the works of Diego Ortiz and Mann Marais, and I found it more exciting to play something that had not been heard for so long. Also, I remember, from many years ago, when I received from England microfilms of tablatures for the lyra-viol. For me it was like a new world opening up. Every time you discover this, you gain a satisfaction not only as a musician but as an explorer, a creator."

Listening to Savall talk about music is akin to entering this kaleidoscope of ideas—a myriad of musical thoughts, ever-changing, but also clearly focused. One constant strand in this vision has been the viola da gamba. "I feel that the viol has the same capacity for expression as a voice, and the same length as a voice as yet unbroken—and the same possibilities to try out the delight of artistry. I work on a new programme of consort music every year because for me it is one of the most essential instrumental languages that exist: in ten bars of fantasies by Henry Purcell or John Jenkins [a new disc of which is reviewed this month] you find such a concentration of ideas that you would need two sonatas of, say, Handel or Telemann—and I am not talking about quality of ideas, but the control of something extremely abstract and yet expressive."

For all his love of the consort repertoire and the more soloisticallyinclined music of Mann Marais, Savall's scope is much wider. In addition to his recordings, originally for Telefunken and now issued on Auvidis Astree, Savall has found time to be involved in one of last year's more bizarre yet encouraging artistic productions—the Alain Corneau film Tous les matins du monde, starring French actor Gerard Depardieu. The film recounts the story of the relationship between Mann Marais and his teacher Sainte-Colombe. "I first formed an ensemble [Hespérion XX] in 1974 because it was a natural requirement to be able to perform the music that interests me –and the music only exists when you play it. What is important is the vision and conception that leads to a possibility bringing something different, personal to the music."

One of the more exciting byproducts of last year's Mozart celebrations was the recording of a neglected opera by the Valencian-born

Vicente Martin y Soler, Una cosa rara—a `Mozartian' work, for not only was the libretto written by Lorenzo da Ponte, but the two composers shared the same teacher, and Mozart was moved to quote music from the finale of Una cosa rara in his own later-written Don Giovanni.

What then, for Sava11, was the challenge of bringing the Martin y Soler to the public? "For many years I have wanted to perform Spanish operatic music, and whilst I have worked on the earliest example, Celos aun del aire matan, by Juan Hidalgo, I found that Una cosa rare was a much easier piece with which to introduce the Hispanic world of opera." Martin y Soler gained his musical education in Spain and was strongly influenced by the tonadilla, a cantata-like work inserted between the acts of operas, and the variation form—musical ideas which come over strongly in Una cosa rara. He then absorbed current styles in Italy before moving to Vienna around 1785, starting his collaboration with da Ponte in 11 burbero di buon cuore. Martin y Soler certainly was possessed of a European musical eclecticism—he worked also in England and later in Russia, writing an opera The unfortunate hero Kosometovich, to a text prepared by Catherine the Great. "Martin y Soler, I think, was Like Mozart in his capacity to assimilate the musical language of the time—yet still produce something personal. And also it is the perfect example of an opera of this time, in the equilibrium between the singing and orchestra writing on the one hand and the comic dramatization on the other. This was one of the explanations for its enormous success at the time. Yet Martin y Soler was neither Italian nor German and everybody had forgotten about him by about 1830.

"It was exciting to record a work like this without any previous recordings or productions in modern times. We [the recently-formed Le Concert des Nations, an ensemble of panEuropean origins, and La Capella Reial de Catalunya] performed it three years ago in a concert version and then gave six performances in Barcelona last year, and from the stagings we have now produced a recording. I hope that listeners can try to hear it as though with the same ears as a contemporary audience, because I think that this is the way to hear all the spontaneity and novelties in this music. It is, I believe, naïve, yet very strong on ideas and as such merits a place in the contemporary repertory." And Savall is so convinced of the worth of Martin y Soler that he has been hard at work on the third of the collaborations with da Ponte, L'abore di Diana. Opera audiences in Madrid have clamoured for the production, starring sopranos Maria Angeles Peters and Montserrat Figueras, to be given in the Spanish capital—as yet they have been rewarded only with the concert performance.

To all his musical activities Savall brings a highly personal yet deeply thought-out approach. His own litany of treasured works includes the Monteverdi Vespers. "I approached this as a man of the Renaissance—a man whose experience came only from the Medieval and Renaissance music. For me, the Monteverdi was like discovering a fine cathedral: a vast architectural construction but full of exquisite altars, the whole allowing a great freedom of expression." And Savall's performances of Monteverdi in Barcelona can gather 1,500-2,000 concert-goers, a mark of his following locally. Haydn and Bach too feature in this litany. "I have had around me since a student the scores of both the Seven Last Words of Christ and Bach's Art of Fugue. The Bach I recorded in 1985. Now I feel ready to tackle the Haydn—the original version for orchestra with winds, commissioned for the Santa Cueva Church in Cadiz—and the discoveries that I found with this I have found extraordinary, having approached it from Dowland's Seven Lachrimae, Purcell's Fantasies, and the Bach Art of Fugue. With Bach also [his Orchestral Suites and now the Brandenburg Concertos] I use my experience from the music before—when you play a gavotte or sarabande by Mann Marais you have specific instructions for phrasing, ornamentation and so on. You can bring this to Bach."

And the kaleidoscope turns on. "Now we are working on programmes from 'El siglo oro'. Whilst many people know of the riches of

Spanish paintings—for example Velazquez or the Toledo-based El Greco—or literature—Cervantes or Lope de Vega—the musical riches such as Francisco Guerrero, Cristobal de Morales, Juan Vasquez and Mateo Flecha are more remote to people of today. We [and this now includes the instrumental ensemble Le Concert des Nations and the combined vocal and instrumental forces of La Capella Reial de Catalunya to add to Hesperion XX and of course Savall's wife, Montserrat Figueras] are also working on Cantigas and two contrasting Requiem Masses, one by Mozart, the other by Francisco Vals."

The ability to keep this maelstrom in check is best explained in Savall's own words. "The music only exists when you play it and there are always different possibilities in interpretation. Of two French Baroque viol players it was said at the time, 'Mann Marais plays like an angel; Forqueray like a devil'. In Monteverdi I defend my approach not as a form of perfection but just as one possibility—and a 'perfectly authentic' approach can be destructive to the music. The fact that we are using the correct instruments and such like is not a guarantee. We constantly strive for that state that I think Casals attained. Particularly when you compare him to another player, you see the soul of his playing—such a gift. This is something you cannot learn. Music is a mysterious art."

E-4-` 33, 52 & 72