The trip that Marco Polo undertook to the Far East at the age of 17 frames the fourth edition of the Jordi Savall festival, which this year is dedicated to the coexistence between cultures reflected in a proposal that includes artists from the countries visited by the Venetian traveler, of whom This year the 700th anniversary of his death is commemorated. “Music allows us to dialogue with any culture, it does not require translation, it goes directly to the heart,” said Maestro Savall this Wednesday at the Palau Moja, during the presentation of an event that will bring together 13 concerts between the 12th and the 18th of August in the monasteries of Santes Creus and Poblet, Cistercian heritage enclaves to which is added the convent of Sant Francesc de Montblanc.
“The best way to fill heritage buildings is with music, it allows us to travel in time and feel the same as listeners from 200 years ago,” highlighted the alma mater of the festival, which took the opportunity to demand recognition for music performers. ancient because “they are living museums.” Musicians from Afghanistan, Iran, Armenia, Morocco as well as the West will meet at the tribute to Marco Polo to be held at the Reial Monestir of Santes Creus with the collaboration of the Orpheus XXI project, responsible for bringing together traditional refugee musicians to commemorate the music that the Venetian traveled in the 14th century, a journey that is complemented by La veu dels tàrtars, by the Ensemble Ekiyat, led by the sisters Alfia and Aliya Bakieva, virtuosos of the violin and the saz respectively with a great command of cultural traditions of Tatar origin.
The trip is completed with Pythia from the Ensembe Irini, the group chosen for this year’s residency, which will perform a dialogue between Western and Byzantine vocal music through the work of the German composer Orlando di Lassus along with songs from ancient Constantinople inspired in the link between femininity and divinity.
This cultural meeting includes the program ‘A sea of music’, the second part of the slavery music project. “It is based on the maritime route that goes from the Canary Islands and Africa to the Caribbean, one of the most extraordinary areas in the world on a musical level,” Savall highlighted, “in a very small space we find very rich and diverse cultures.” Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, Colombia or Venezuela will shake hands with the Mediterranean with the participation of several American musicians, including the Cubans Teresa Yanet and Lixsania Fernández, and the Mexican-Colombian Tembembe Ensemble, in addition to the Capella Reial de Catalunya and Hespèrion XXI under the direction of Savall himself, performing pieces from the period as well as from the 19th and 20th centuries that reflect the encounter between the two worlds.
Linked to coexistence, peace is also the protagonist of the festival with the Pro·Pacem program, in which Savall will direct the Capella Reial de Catalunya and Hespèrion XXI to perform pieces that revolve around the theme of peace.
The female presence will be another of the protagonists of the festival, which recovers the women’s orchestra Les Musiciennes du Concert des Nations, protagonist in the last edition of a concert focused on the figure of Vivaldi that will soon be published on disc. On this occasion they will recreate the women’s orchestra of the Ospedale Della Pietà in Venice during the Baroque era, with songs by Vivaldi himself and other European composers of the period such as Corelli, Häendel, Bach or Geminiani.
Another highlight of the festival is the concert Maurice Raviel: Inspirations
Amor mi fa canto, under the direction of Efrén López, will be the concert in charge of inaugurating the festival, linking love with coexistence. It is one of the eight invited proposals, which in addition to the Ensemble Ekiyat and the Irini include La flor en Paradís, music from the 12th to 12th centuries linked to the Cistercian era and the founding period of the Santes Creus monastery by the Tasto Solo ensemble. The Ensemble Intonationes, directed by David Sagastume, will recover the figure of Johannes de Antxieta, one of the most important Basque composers of the time of Isabel la Católica. For its part, the Concerto Madrigalesco, conducted by Luca Guglielmi, will recover the link between Mozart and his disciple, Eberl, during the last years of the great composer. Finally, the Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya will perform the Membra Jesu Nostri by Dietrich Buxtehude, “one of the most sublime works of the Baroque.”
Beyond the concerts, the festival will once again have a series of conferences featuring the one given by Kristian Herbolzheimer, director of the Institut Català Internacional per la Pau, responsible for writing and reading the inaugural manifesto of the event, which will once again promote the presence of a young audience with more than 150 tickets at a reduced price. Likewise, a bus service will be provided from Barcelona, Tarragona, Reus and Vilafranca del Penedès to make more accessible a festival that is committed to the decentralization of culture and the promotion of Catalan artistic heritage, so close geographically but so far away in the minds of the urbanites.
