Jordi Savall in concert
Tonight, I was fortunate enough to attend a concert given by Jordi Savll, the world-class viola da gamba player. I went with Alan Rich, independent music critic and a guy who seems to have connections to just about anything and everything happening in the Los Angeles classical music scene.
The concert was held at the Doheny Mansion in a rotunda-like space that had strangely dead acoustics for a room of its shape. This, however, didn’t matter at all, as I was sitting in the second row and about ten feet from where Jordi Savall was playing. The concert was entitled “Les Voix Humaines” and was a showcase of repertoire for the solo viola da gamba. The overall theme of Voix Humaines was the idea that no instrument can more closely imitate a human voice than a gamba – particularly the bass viola da gamba. After tonight’s concert, I was won over.
The most amazing thing about this concert was that I never found myself thinking about the form of any of the pieces being played. Savall’s playing took me on a magical journey from one exquisite musical moment to the next. I never caught myself thinking, “Ok, so that’s the main motif of this piece – let’s see what this composer does with it” or anything like that. I was completely captivated by the sheer beauty of the sound made by the gamba and the masterful artistry with which Savall plays it. I got the feeling that Savall wasn’t ‘performing’ in the usual sense of the word. He was playing the instrument that he loves most, and everyone in the audience was simply lucky enough to get to listen in on him. He also seemed genuinely happy to be talking to us in between works and giving everyone a bit more history about a particular piece, or explaining how and why he was retuning the instrument for one piece or another. There wasn’t any piece in the program that I did not like, but I especially enjoyed his rendition of the second Bourée from Bach’s fourth cello suite, which he played completely pizzicato. One of the other pieces that was especially stunning was the Prelude by Karl Friedrich Abel, the last great gamba player of the 18th century. However, my favorite piece of the evening was the encore that Savall played, a set of variations on a gwerz, or lullaby from Breton called “O Soñjal”. It was a pure, simple melody in dorian mode, and it was played with such care and simplicity that I could hardly breathe after it had ended.
I knew that I was interested in playing the gamba before attending this concert; after having been I now know that I must get my hands on one and learn to play. I actually went up to Savall after the concert and asked him how I should go about getting into playing the gamba. His answer was simple and to the point: “Get a gamba. Find a teacher. Start playing.”
Oh, and one more thing – I’m lucky enough to be going to see Jordi Savall play again next week in Santa Barbara. Having a famous music critic such as Alan Rich as a friend definitely has its perks.
