Music Of The Sephardic Diaspora

by Eric Herschthal
Staff Writer

After a two-year, $159 million facelift, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center finally reopens Sunday, Feb. 22. For two consecutive weeks, the glass-sheathed, bow-looking building plays host to several classical music stars. One of them is Jordi Savall, a Catalan viola da gamba player, who will play from his Grammy-nominated album “Diaspora Sefardí,” on opening night. His ensemble, Hespèrion XXI, joins in, too. Savall recently spoke with The Jewish Week by phone from Spain.

Q: After playing Baroque classical music

for more than 25 years, you decided to record 15th-century Sephardic music. Why?

A: We were desperate for early music, not just classical music. We wanted to record music from medieval Spain, but we couldn’t do it if we didn’t have the music of the Jews. I found the Sephardic music from a big book of songs published by the musicologist Isak Levi. It was published in 1974 — four big books, 150 songs in each! — and had a forward written by the famous Catalan cellist Pablo Casals. He was such a hero that it really caught my interest.

What really fascinated me though was the beauty of these songs, the beauty of medieval Spain, but also of the Jewish history. There’s so many cultures embedded in this music — from Turkey, Andalucia, Sarajevo, Algiers — you can hear the connections between all them.

Q: You’ve said that you chose to play the viola da gamba, something of a lost cousin to the cello, because it lends itself to so many different genres. Does it also make easier to play Sephardic diaspora music? It has a lot of different genres in it, too.

A: No. One thing has nothing to do with the other.

Q: Are you Jewish?

A: Some people say my name, Savall, could come from a Jewish one. But I don’t know. Catalan people, they are very mixed. But I’m not religious at all. Religion is my music.

My wife, Montserrat, our group’s soprano, says her name probably comes from Jewish descendants. Figueras was shortened from Fiegelbaum-Garcìa. So she’s part Jewish, but not religious.

Q: Your most recent recording, “Jerusalem,” has songs from Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures on it. Why aren’t you playing from that album at Tully Hall? And, by the way, were there any problems between the Arabs and Jews who joined you on the new album?

A: I offered the people two albums from our Hespèrion group to play, and the people at Lincoln Center chose “Diáspora Sephardí.” Plus, “Jerusalem” has over 40 musicians on it. And we’re going on tour with it later this year.

And yes, there was some tension recording “Jerusalem” in the beginning. Some Jewish friends said I chose too much Arabic music. Some of the Arab artists from Egypt didn’t want to record with the Israelis I had. And then, there were some Jewish musicians who didn’t want to record with women. I said, Look, we have to record with all the different [types of] people that live in Jerusalem, and it ended up working out. We already sold out of our first 20,000 copies. We’re now making more.

Q: The Metropolitan Museum dedicated a series to you back in 2005. And you’ve since played in most the other New York halls, too. But you haven’t been in Tully Hall since the late-‘90s. Are you excited to be back, especially for its reopening?

A: We’ve played there before, yes, but we’re honored to be back. The hall was great then, but it was less good when the hall was filled. It sounded better in rehearsals, I remember. But I hear they fixed that. It should be better, I’m very excited to hear.

Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI will perform music from “Diaspora Sefardí” on Sunday, Feb. 22, 9 p.m., at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. The concert is one hour. (212) 721-6500. $25.