Hespèrion XXI and friends / Jordi Savall

19:15 Introduction in Fentener van Vlissingen Foyer

In about four centuries, colonisation, deportation and slavery claimed more than 25 million victims in Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean. Jordi Savall, himself a UNESCO Artist for Peace, reaches out to the past from living music in which the voices of the affected peoples can still be heard.

His soundscape of overseas territories also mirrors the traditions of Renaissance and Baroque Europe. We hear works by Gaspar Fernandes, Diego Durón, Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, Felip Olivelles, Santiago de Murcia and numerous anonymous composers. On stage, in addition to Tembembe Ensamble Continuo, Savall welcomes guest musicians from Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Mali, Venezuela and Mexico. Because silence equals forgetting. And to remember is the beginning of hope. 

Part 1: 1440-1640
Traditional Mali

Griot song: African Lament
Alonso

La trivotea Samartín la vea (Canzon alla Villota)
(from: Cancionero de Palacio nr. 247, Madrid 1505-1520)

fl. 1500
Anonymous Nahuatl

Poem
Traditional Afro-Cuban

Song to Oshun
Traditional Haïtian-Vodou

Ballmannan
Traditional Brazilian / arr. Aloysio de Alencar Pinto

Ofulú lorêrê-ê

1911-2007
Matheo Flecha

San Sabeya gugurumbé
(from: La Negrina)

1481?-1553?
Traditional Son jarocho

Los Negritos / Gurumbé
Teodora Ginés

El son de la Má’Toedora

1530-1598
Traditional Mali

Griot song: Sinanon saran
Traditional

Slave song: Look over yonder
Gaspar Fernandes

Tleycantimo choquiliya

***

Part 2: 1680-1880

c1570-1629
Traditional / arr. Michel Costa

Canto do Guerreiro (Caboclinho paraibano)

1808-1884
Traditional

Slave song: You gonna reap what you sow
Traditional Guantánamo

Changüi: La rumba está buena
Gaspar Fernandes / Anonymous Nahuatl

Xicochi conetzintlé / Xochipitzahuatl
Jean-Philippe Rameau

Air pour les esclaves africains instrumental

1683-1764
Anonymous Peru

Cachua serranita nombrada: El Huicho Nuebo: No ay entendimiento humano
(from: Codex Trujillo no. 19, Peru 1780)

18th century
Traditional Haiti

Tumba francesa
Traditional Mali

Lamento
Traditional IsiXhosa

Religious song and prayer: Indodana
Juan García de Zéspedes / Traditional Tixtla

Guaracha: Ay, que me abraso, ay / El Arrancazacate

1619-1678
Mario Oropesa

Aguacero, aguacerito

Programme subject to change

Musicians

Emilio Buale recitant
Neema Bickersteth voice
Sekouba Bambino Griot chant
Yannis François baritone, dance
Ballaké Sissoko kora, voice
Mamani Keita, Tanti Kouyaté, Fanta Sissoko choir
Maria Juliana Linhares soprano
Zé Luis Nascimento percussions
Teresa Yanet voice
Lixsania Fernández voice & bass viol
Marlon Rodríguez percussion & choirs
Frank Pereira guitar, tres cubano & choirs
Sylvie Henry voice
Iván García bass
La Capella Reial de Catalunya
Anna Piroli soprano
David Sagastume countertenor
Víctor Sordo tenor
Lluís Vilamajó tenor
Temembe Ensamble Continuo
Ada Coronel voice, dance
Leopoldo Novoa marimbol, marimba de chonta & tiple colombiano
Enrique Barona leona, jarana & voice
Ulises Martínez violin, vihuela, leona & voice
Hespèrion XXI
Pierre Hamon flutes
Béatrice Delpierre flute, shawm
Elies Hernandis sackbut
Josep Borràs dulcian
Xavier Puertas violone
Xavier Díaz-Latorre theorbo, guitar, vihuela de mano
Andrew Lawrence-King Spanish Baroque harp
David Mayoral percussion
Jordi Savall artistic direction, treble viol

About the performers

Hesperion XXI was founded in 1974 by Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras, flutist Lorenzo Alpert, and lutenist Hopkinson Smith. The ensemble focuses on music from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries and gained worldwide recognition with its dozens of recordings as one of the most important ensembles of the early music movement.

For more than fifty years, Jordi Savall has been rescuing musical gems from oblivion. His activities as a gambist, conductor, teacher, researcher and creator of new musical and cultural projects have made him a leading figure in the re-evaluation of historical music. He is praised for his efforts to achieve peace between different and sometimes warring peoples and cultures through music.

Hespèrion XXI and friends / Jordi Savall