Jordi Savall moves forward with one eye firmly on the past. The Barcelona-born conductor, composer and master of the viola da gamba has carved a decades-long, global career in the reconstruction and revival of forgotten music from the Middle Ages, the Spanish Renaissance and the Baroque. In 1974, he and his late wife, the soprano Montserrat Figueras formed the ensemble Hespèrion XX, which endured for so long that they renamed it Hespèrion XXI as the century turned. 

In February 2023, Savall and Hespèrion will bring their program, Fantasies, Battles and Dances: The Golden Age of European Consort Music to Adelaide, Melbourne and to Sydney’s newly refurbished Concert Hall. The music, written between 1494 and 1750 by composers including Dowland, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Purcell and JS Bach, will be performed by the period ensemble comprising treble, alto, tenor and bass viols with violone, theorbo or guitar, and percussion.

Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall. Photo © David Ignaszewski

Speaking to Limelight, Savall describes the lineup as “the most beautiful pieces of the second part of the Renaissance until the Baroque time, composed mostly for the viola da gamba consort. We will play the...