Jordi Savall, Apr 14 2026

I heard Jordi Savall at Carnegie Hall on Apr 14, 2026. I’d never heard of him but my friend Stephanie had bought a ticket, ended up being out of town, and gave me her ticket. Thank you Stephanie, the concert was sensational!

My friend Bill tells me that Savall was one of the people most responsible for what we call early music having a place in concert stages and recordings. He trained as a viola da gamba player (that’s a precursor to a cello) and formed an early music ensemble called Hespèrion XX in 1974. The group was renamed Hespèrion XXI at the turn of the century. 

Here are Savall and Hespèrion XXI in performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RD1uf2z-5FnI8&v=1uf2z-5FnI8

Let me explain what is meant by “early music.” This is a term generally given to anything written before the Baroque era, more or less anything before Bach and Handel. And it can be quite early indeed - - the oldest piece we heard in this concert was written in the mid-1100s. 

I’d heard the Waverly Consort twice, back in the 1990s in Madison and again in New York in the 2010s - - they’re another successful early music group. If I were to compare the Waverlys to the Savall ensemble, I’d say the Waverlys revealed the beauty of the music whereas the Savall revealed the beauty AND the vitality. The music came alive in a tangible and exciting way.

The program was called Songs, Battles, and Dances: From the Old World to the New. The performers were Savall on viola da gamba plus these two groups that he formed:

Hespèrion XXI: flutes, cornett, flute and shawn, sackbut, three treble viols, tenor viol, bass viol, violin, theorbo and guitar, baroque harp, and bells and percussion

La Capella Reial de Catalunya: two sopranos, a male alto, two tenors, a bass

Plus another featured group not founded by Savall, the Tembembe Ensamble Continuo - - Ada Coronel singing and dancing and Ulises Martínez singing and playing violin, vihuela, and leona.

Plus two solo singers: soprano Neema Bickersteth and baritone and dancer Yannis François.

It’s a lot of people and they were a crackerjack band, totally tuned into the same frequency and radiating the joy in performing out to the audience. That’s thrilling in itself.

My favorite moment of the concert was in the very first piece. The percussion player had a big round drum with a well-worn leather head in front of him suspended from his neck. He played it with two rather short and thick wooden sticks. He was standing next to a set of suspended bells and he played both the drum and the bells:

Boom boom boom DING

Boom boom boom DONG

Totally seamless and effortless and super fun to watch. He had an even more impressive moment in the second half - - he had that same drum in front of him plus a small rat-tat-tat drum propped up on the side against his elbow plus a small tambourine in his left hand. The played these with one of those wooden sticks:

Boom rat tat tat

Boom rat tat tat PISH

Boom rat tat tat PISH PISH

And at the end of that piece he pulled out a Jew’s harp (do we still call it that) and was twang twanging to a fare-thee-well. It was endlessly delightful! He was a multitasker from the 12th century, long before the word was invented! His sweet bashful smile showed us that he knew what he was doing was impressive.

One of my favorite pieces of music was early in the program, a 16th century composer I’d never heard of named Noel Bauldeweyn. The piece was reverent yet tangy. Which sounds like something you’d read in Wine Connoisseur magazine, maybe a description of a white zinfandel.

The men in La Capella had a solo number in each half of the concert and both were rapturously beautiful. They had a sublime blend and delineated the harmonies in a revelatory way.

Solo baritone François had a handsome voice, a direct way with the language that made it seem like he was telling a story, and was a nimble dancer with a gorgeous, sinuous line.

I assume that Savall chose the program and maybe also made the arrangements, when arrangements were needed (and who knows what was in the source materials). Maybe it’s because this came so soon after the New York Festival of Song concert of Poulenc and Sondheim, but I really think one of the biggest thrills of a classical music concert is not the performance but the programming. The Savall concert was a masterpiece of programming. He put in a spicy upbeat piece after a few reverent and/or somber pieces, it perked things up a bit. 

One of the most inventive pieces of programming was the way he handled the solos by soprano Neema Bickersteth. She sang two American fold songs attributed to “American traditional” in the program. Her voice was bluesy with a hint of rasp. The first song had a powerfully spare arrangement, just the guitar and harp playing on every beat, sometimes leaving a measure of silence. Bickersteth had a powerful, regal presence, and the sure, strong sound of her shoes on the wooden floor as she walked away seemed to be an essential element of the performance.

The instrumental piece that came after it started with the low winds, then the strings. The repeat of the chorus was joined by two or three recorders which had me grinning like an idiot, it was such a bright, happy sound.

Another piece had solos by Tembembe Ensamble Continuo. The man had a delightfully dry and coarse voice, the woman’s voice pealed out of her. They evoked music you could hear by buskers on a street corner in Mexico City or on the A train above 175th Street.

One instrumental piece had an instrument in it that sure sounded like a baritone sax. Not possible, I know. Was I having a neurological episode?

The second half started with the two solo singers in a duet. The band arrangement had a sort of bluegrass flavor which, for me, wasn’t altogether convincing.

One piece had a solo by the sackbut (what you call me?), a precursor to the trombone. His playing had so much unexpected outré exuberance, it caused me to tear up! Eight singers (La Capella plus the two solo singers) did a gorgeous a cappella piece which was accompanied by a magical hush from the audience. I love that.

François did some more dancing on the second half. The woman from Tembembe Ensamble Continuo maybe made the wise choice to not try and match him as a dancer so she let her scarf do the dancing. She handled that thing with great aplomb.

The final piece had solos for almost everyone, it was a perfect way to end the concert.