Jordi Savall, an eminent musician, has been awarded the Ernst von Siemens Prize, one of the highest international distinctions in the field of music, often compared to the Nobel Prizes. "The Nobel Prizes of music," they say, although given the decline of some Nobel Prizes (the Peace Prize, for example), they may cease to be as prestigious a benchmark as they once were. The Ernst von Siemens Prize—awarded by the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts on behalf of the foundation dedicated to the magnate who rebuilt Siemens Industries after World War II—does, for now, enjoy unquestionable prestige: it has been awarded since 1974 and—as you can read in Xavier Cervantes's reportIt has been awarded to some of the most important figures in 20th-century music, such as Britten, Messiaen, Segovia, Barenboim, Abbado, and Bernstein, to name just a few of the best known. Now, Jordi Savall deservedly joins this illustrious list.
Jordi Savall is also well-known, though it's worth asking to what extent his work, and its importance, is equally recognized. His work as a researcher, the recovery and updating of an inexhaustible repertoire of early music, his reinterpretations of classical composers such as Monteverdi, Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert, his impressive activity as a concert performer, the artistic partnership he formed for many years with his wife, the soprano Montserrat Figuer, in ensembles like Hespèrion XXI and Le Concert des Nations: all of this constitutes one of the greatest contributions Catalan culture has received in recent decades, which, through the work of Savall and his musicians, projects itself as universal. He has done so with tenacity and selflessness, with a demanding and rigorous yet also joyful dedication, because for Savall, music visibly brings happiness, and he intends to share it with his audience. That is why, in addition to the thousands of concerts he has given, he has also promoted the creation of two early music festivals (the Fontfreda Festival and the Jordi Savall Festival) and the Alia Vox music label.
Savall's artistic vision unites music with history, proposing listening not only as a source of enjoyment but also as a vantage point from which to understand our present. Contact with beauty is also educational: it teaches us to be intolerant of ugliness, of the dark and undesirable aspects of the human condition. In dark times like these, music, as Jordi Savall understands it, is not only a realm of beauty but also a place to cling to, a serene boat—to use the words of the poet Maria Josep Escrivà—on a stormy and treacherous sea. Against those who prescribe and preach discouragement, cynicism, and resentment, Jordi Savall offers reasons to be proud of Catalonia, of the country, and of its culture.
