Jordi Savall with grey hair and beard sits in front of a dark green background, holding a viola da gamba and a bow and wearing a dark suit with a blue scarf.

Ensembles
Berliner Philharmoniker
Karajan-Akademie
Hespèrion XXI
Le Concert des Nations

Composers
Rameau · Gluck · Lully
Handel · Telemann · Ortiz
Sanz · Guerrero · Correa de Arauxo

Focus point Mozart
Requiem
Jupiter Symphony
Clarinet Concerto

Jordi Savall | Picture: David Igaszewski

Jordi Savall was almost single-handedly responsible for the modern resurgence of interest in the viola da gamba and music for viol concert. The instrumentalist and conductor is a truly remarkable figure in the field of early music and of historically informed performance practice.  He has discovered countless musical treasures from the Renaissance and the Baroque and founded three famous early music ensembles, each of which has made it possible for audiences to hear early music in new ways. He is also in demand as a teacher and as a composer. This season, you can encounter Jordi Savall in all his facets, including his debut as a conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Few musicians in the field of historically informed performance practice can look back on such an impressive career as the Catalan Jordi Savall, yet it was by something of a roundabout route that he came to the viol. He began his musical studies as a boy chorister in his native Igualada, near Barcelona, before studying the cello at the city’s Conservatory. Only on completion of his studies in 1965 did he take up the viol, which he studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, where he also attended a course in historically informed performance practice and where he has taught from 1973. Since then, he has been in constant demand as a teacher. Since 2009 he has also been a guest lecturer at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York.

In the course of his career, Jordi Savall has founded Hespèrion XX (now Hespèrion XXI), La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations. With these ensembles, he has appeared all over the world, while at the same time pursuing an international career as an instrumentalist. Throughout this time it has always been his aim to rediscover forgotten works, often from his own country. His first albums were devoted for the most part to Spanish music of the fifteenth century, after which he turned his attention to works from other periods and countries. His repertoire now includes works written over a span of almost one thousand years, from the ninth to the nineteenth century. More recently, he has developed an interest in the works of Felix Mendelssohn.

In addition to his activities as a viol player, as a teacher and as the director of his various ensembles, Jordi Savall has also worked as a composer and written the soundtrack for the French historical drama Marquise directed by Véra Belmont. In 1991, he served as the musical adviser on the lavishly-designed, multi-award-winning biopic Tous les Matins du Monde about the French viol player Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, in addition to which he recorded the soundtrack, which earned him a César Award for the best film score.

Since 2011, Jordi Savall and his ensembles have been invited by the Berliner Philharmoniker to appear at the Philharmonie on multiple occasions. This season, he will be making two additional debuts as a conductor, both with the Berliner Philharmoniker and at the Karajan Academy.

Jordi Savall, with grey hair and a green patterned shirt, holds a wooden stringed instrument in his hand. He is standing on a dimly lit stage. Sheet music and a music stand can be seen in the foreground.

Chamber Music Hall

Baroque weekend

Hespèrion XXI:
Jordi Savall viol and direction
Xavier Díaz-Latorre guitar
Andrew Lawrence-King Barockharfe
Xavier Puertas violone
David Mayoral percussion

The Garden of the Hesperides

Works by Diego Ortiz, Gaspar Sanz, Pedro Guerrero, Francisco Correa de Arauxo and other composers

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Discounted Baroque package available from 22 June.

Jordi Savall, with grey hair and beard, gesticulates passionately. He wears glasses and a black suit. He appears in front of a blurred background illuminated by dramatic lighting that creates a rainbow effect.

Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker
Jordi Savall conductor

Works by
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Christoph Willibald Gluck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Jean-Philippe Rameau
Naïs, Suite (compiled by Jordi Savall)

Christoph Willibald Gluck
Don Juan, Ballet

Interval

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 “Jupiter”

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Jordi Savall, with grey hair and beard, gesticulates passionately. He wears glasses and a black suit. He appears in front of a blurred background illuminated by dramatic lighting that creates a rainbow effect.

Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker
Jordi Savall conductor

Works by
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Christoph Willibald Gluck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Jean-Philippe Rameau
Naïs, Suite (compiled by Jordi Savall)

Christoph Willibald Gluck
Don Juan, Ballet

Interval

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 “Jupiter”

Read more
Jordi Savall, with grey hair and beard, gesticulates passionately. He wears glasses and a black suit. He appears in front of a blurred background illuminated by dramatic lighting that creates a rainbow effect.

Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker
Jordi Savall conductor

Works by
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Christoph Willibald Gluck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Jean-Philippe Rameau
Naïs, Suite (compiled by Jordi Savall)

Christoph Willibald Gluck
Don Juan, Ballet

Interval

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 “Jupiter”

Group photo with musicians with their instruments in the foyer of the Philharmonie Berlin

Chamber Music Hall

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker
Jordi Savall conductor

Works by
Jean-Baptiste Lully, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel

Jean-Baptiste Lully
Alceste ou Le triomphe d’Alcide, orchestral suite

Georg Philipp Telemann
Overture Suite in C major, TWV 55:C3 “Water Music: Hamburg Ebb and Flow”

George Frideric Handel
Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351

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Jordi Savall, with grey hair and a green patterned shirt, holds a wooden stringed instrument in his hand. He is standing on a dimly lit stage. Sheet music and a music stand can be seen in the foreground.

Main Auditorium

Le Concert des Nations
Jordi Savall direction
Francesco Spendolini clarinet
Capella Nacional de Catalunya

Works by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A major, K. 622

Francesco Spendolini clarinet

Interval

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Requiem in D minor, K. 626 (Version from Franz Xaver Süßmayr)

Capella Nacional de Catalunya

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