Jordi Savall: "Music is the best way to understand the differences between cultures and, at the same time, the points of contact"

GironaJordi Savall (Igualada, 1941) has spent decades exploring the history of music from a deeply humanistic, rigorous, and open perspective, building bridges between peoples and traditions through centuries of shared musical heritage. On July 10th, he will present at the Occident Porta Ferrada FestivalThe Silk Road, a proposal that, coinciding with the seventh centenary of Marco Polo's death, musically retraces the Venetian merchant's journey between 1271 and 1295. Led by the historicist ensemble Hespèrion XXI and a cast of soloists from around the world, Savall proposes a musical itinerary that crosses the Eastern Mediterranean, Armenia, Persia, China, Sri Lanka, and the Tatar steppes.

How does the idea of building a concert around the figure of Marco Polo, famous for his trade routes but often little linked to the world of music, come about?

— It is not the first time that I start from a historical figure to build a musical narrative, as I have already carried out other programs dedicated to travelers such as Christopher Columbus or Ibn Battuta. The origin of this way of working dates back to a reading that marked me greatly when I was young, The Province of Man, by Elias Canetti, who says that music is the true living history of humanity, because it touches our hearts directly. When we listen to music from another era, we can share the same emotions that the people who created it felt, we can reconstruct the life of a very distant time. That is why I always try to interpret music with the instruments, styles, and historical context that correspond to it.

How was the repertoire research and selection process?

— It is probably the most difficult part, because most of the pieces are anonymous, undated, or not fixed in a notation system. But we have a great advantage, because I have been working with musicians from all over the world for many years. I know more than a thousand of them. Artists from Syria, Iran, Armenia, Turkey, China, Sri Lanka, and the Tatar tradition are participating in this program, and they all have a great deal of knowledge about their musical heritage. Without them, this project would be impossible.

Does the program aim to show the uniqueness and interest of each of the pieces from all these cultures?

— Exactly. And they are all very different. Today, in Western tradition, we have ended up standardizing the way music is interpreted. When I was young, the Paris Orchestra, the Berlin Orchestra, and the Vienna Orchestra had completely different sounds when interpreting pieces by Mozart or Haydn. Now everything tends to sound the same. For my part, for more than half a century I have tried to go the opposite way and understand what makes the music of each place and each era unique.

What are the musical characteristics of the music from The Silk Road?

— Since many come from oral transmission, they leave a great deal of room for improvisation. When, for example, the duduk performs an Armenian dance or Turkish musicians introduce a makam, there is an important part that is born in that very moment of the concert. We also perform medieval European pieces, because they are likewise monodic music over which improvisation occurs. This allows us to make them coexist within the same program with great coherence. Music is the best way to understand the differences and, at the same time, the points of contact between cultures.

Is this way of understanding music a way of claiming the exchange and mixing between peoples, at a time when discourses that discriminate based on origin are emerging?

— Totally. Today a journey like Marco Polo's would be impossible. In those days, goods circulated, but also ideas, music, and culture. Today, on the other hand, physical borders and also prejudices make this dialogue very difficult. For years, for example, I managed to bring together Palestinian and Israeli musicians in Jerusalem to make music together, but today it would be much more difficult, because wars leave very deep wounds.

Why do you think it is still worthwhile today to listen to music from seven or eight centuries ago?

— For the same reason we visit a museum. When we contemplate a Greek sculpture or a medieval painting, they simply move us. I always say that I work in a living museum. That is why it is so important to train musicians who truly know historical styles. It is not enough to play an instrument well; one must accumulate knowledge of styles, articulation, phrasing, type of sound, the way of understanding rhythm... It is often surprising that some theaters think that a modern orchestra can perform baroque repertoire without having done this previous work. It is like asking a doctor to cure you of a discipline of which he is not a specialist.

Last May he received the Ernst von Siemens Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of music. How did he experience it?

— It is an enormous satisfaction, because it does not recognize a specific project, but an entire career. However, this recognition has also made me think about an issue that worries me greatly: the preservation of my legacy. An important effort is being made in Catalonia, but it is still difficult for both the administrations in Barcelona and in Spain to value the need to preserve it. All the work done for more than thirty years with Le Concert des Nations and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, with a career at the best festivals in the world, should have continuity beyond my person. In Catalonia, we let Pau Casals' orchestra be lost, and we should not repeat the same mistake.