Jordi Savall has found in Santes Creus the summer den where he can stop for a few days, while his festival is celebrated, “because I would like to stop traveling so much”, he says, sipping his breakfast tea. The musical competition looks beautiful this year, as if the 82-year-old maestro had been organizing it all his life. The townspeople stop him. He enters the artisan grocery store on the main street to greet the shopkeepers – they have been working in this store for 60 years!” – and no one in the village would say that this is only the third edition of the Jordi Savall Festival.
“I had performed at the Royal Monastery a couple of times a while ago, and when we ran out of the festival in Poblet I quickly thought of this wonderful place,” he says, referring to the gem of 12th-century Catalan Cistercian art which is in the capital of the municipality of Aiguamúrcia flanked by a baroque square that “anyone would say we are in Italy, right?”.
Savall has been chaining emotions for days: in Salzburg last week he had an enormous audience and critical reception with Beethoven’s symphonies, and on Monday he was able to bring to Santes Creus the project of The four seasons played only by women, as happened in the Vivaldi’s Venice with the girls of the Ospedale della Pietà, the convent, hospice and music school where composers such as Anna Bon and Vincenta da Ponte emerged. A relief for the soul, although in the open air it was necessary to tune the gut string instruments every two by three.
Was this success expected from the women’s orchestra?
Yes, because it’s already a very risky bet, you can’t look for the best, but the best of the best. But they have been of incredible quality and professionalism. And the strongest: there is an atmosphere, a communion between them, a joy, an extraordinary commitment. This concert in a mixed group would be totally different.
Different because this level of communion would not be achieved?
exactly We all know that between men and women there is always a conflict that can be latent, because what happens in the world also happens in orchestras.
It sounded particularly organic, alive, fresh, subtle…
A lot. We did this concert in Fontfreda and in Graz, where people applauded for 20 minutes. It was wonderful. One of the girls, already at the back, cried with emotion, with joy, for having been able to do what we did. It was so beautiful… They live this experience very deeply, because they feel responsible, they work, they want to do well. There is respect and a great human quality. There is a harmony that comes from solidarity. They are supportive of each other, there is no competition… Among men there is much more competitiveness.
He thought of doing a tribute to Vivaldi emulating the Ospedale when he saw that at Le Concert des Nations they had women to do a Concert des Nations Fémenin.
Yes, it was about giving them a chance, recognizing their artistic ability and seeing what they give of themselves. And I was surprised. The Concerto for four violins was pure wonder.
Why do you think that a Vienna Philharmonic still resists the already natural parity?
This comes from far away. The woman has always been tried to leave her aside. My grandmother was illiterate, and her brother, director of the University. Distinctions were made in the family. She had a business, but she could barely read.
And how did the women who dared to create do it in ancient music?
In the Middle Ages, the profession of musician was a low profession, almost like servants. Haydn was a servant of the court, Mozart was a servant of the archbishop. A noblewoman could not say that she composed; was to lower oneself. That is why there are thousands of anonymous pieces in the Renaissance, and even in the classical repertoires: I am convinced that these extraordinary pieces of music were composed by women of the noble class or with resources who did not dare to give their names. Because a man will never stop making his name. by nature We have a discussion with some musicologists. They entered the monastery, but they controlled the convent, organized it, each nun had her maids, they had resources, they did business, they bought land… they were people who had very high musical qualities. I can’t imagine that four illiterate monks would be better musicians than they.
If they dared to sign, were there consequences?
In some cases, not to say that they were composing, they said that they had visions, inspiration from heaven. “I created it because God asked me to.” If not, they were treated as witches and burned. When it had a creative quality, the woman was either a witch or a whore. Great composers of the Renaissance were murdered, since the fact of showing themselves in public turned them into courtesans, of the easy life. There are many cases in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in Italy, of women who are so jealous that they kill them. But this envy towards the feminine is a way of maintaining power. Fanny Mendelssohn, beautiful, was not accepted in the circle of composers. Great orchestra conductor, and neither. Luckily his brother supported him.
The girls at the Ospedale were lucky enough to learn from Vivaldi.
Yes, but they were penalized when they became independent. If they left the Ospedale, they could not play in Venice, they had to find a life and leave because they could not compete with those who stayed there.
And could those from the Ospedale show themselves when they played?
It depends, they weren’t cloister girls but they wore Venetian carnival masks to protect their identity as they were considered courtesans. It’s a fascinating world.
What did he take from the criticism he received in Salzburg blessing his Beethoven?
“A concert like this gives meaning to life”, they said. They are people used to a lot of quality and when they discover such a different Beethoven, they hallucinate. I had this idea of ??Beethoven 30 years ago: in 1994 I recorded it, but everyone criticized it. Even the critics of today were not prepared for such a Beethoven.
And since you edit it, it will never be out of print.
I never cancel. Whenever a stock runs out, I do it again, even if it doesn’t work out commercially. Alia Vox [which is 25 years old] is not a business, it is a cultural action. As long as Alia lives Vox will have records.
How is the financing of his orchestra’s trips, a subject that worries him?
I have just created a Foundation in Switzerland to raise patronage. You need to make an initial investment of 70,000 or 80,000 euros, and I do it personally. It’s worth it, because the projects are special.
He has just paid a visit to Sant Felip Neri, he has met the Philippians. How do you see having the headquarters of your Foundation in Barcelona?
There is a lot of goodwill and very beautiful spaces. It would be an ideal place to have a presence in the center of Barcelona, ??but it is still a place for Felipons and we have to share it. It will not be one hundred percent our house, better a Free Theater that you occupy, but to have some offices and be able to use the church for the Academy and rehearsals.
Should we wait for the reform?
No, the reform is mainly for the schools, for us it would only be necessary to clean, paint, remove the documents from the monks who filled the cells… But we keep looking at Pedralbes, because we could have more independence there.
Was the experience at the Lyceum with Calixto Bieito’s Poppea ultimately unpleasant?
Directing and having right there, at every rehearsal and performance, two characters getting skinny and doing everything you can imagine… or a guy who beats up the servant and then pulls out a gun and kills him…
It is Bieito’s realism.
Yes, but when it’s so repetitive it loses strength, because there was violence all the time. I thought I had the right to express it. I admire Calixto’s creative quality, but I can admire the quality of a musician and tell him that I don’t like him here for a while. From the pit you tried to give directions to an artist at the bottom, but you couldn’t because you had another one almost being strangled and screaming like a desperate woman. It was a little difficult for me.
Won’t we see them together again?
I don’t think it’s an immediate thing. In life we ??must be able to choose certain ways of doing things.
What projects do you have now?
There is a short version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which we do in Santes Creus and which will be seen at the Liceu in October. I have decided to cast actors to play Oberó, Titania and Puck (the madman) and four other young people to act as if it were a play, which is how it should be. I also have Haydn’s Les Estacions, which we will perform in Barcelona, ??among other places, but I don’t know where yet, and the two Italian symphonies of Mendelssohn will be released. In November the Missa Solemnis will be released, in December the Te Deum by Charpentier, before the summer Vivaldi, and in between an album by contemporary Spanish and Catalan composers who wanted to pay me a tribute inspired by works from the Red Book, Couperain.. .