Concert review: Hespèrion XXI/Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall, director of the viol consort Hespèrion XXI for an incredible 50 years, has built up a loyal and enthusiastic following which turned up in force at Wigmore Hall a week before Christmas. Savall was joined on treble viol by Christophe Coin, with younger colleagues on pairs of tenor and bass viols, a chittarone/guitar player and some delicate percussion, including a drum roll used to introduce the battle-themed pieces.

The programme took us all over Europe, from England to France, Germany, Italy and Spain in a colourful succession of pavans and galliards, in nomines and battle music, across two centuries from 1550 to 1750. The musicians’ beautifully blended sound was obvious from the very first notes, and their pleasure in playing together – relishing the give and take of the civilised, conversational music – was tangible.

Savall, now 83, showed his renowned expertise on the treble viol (comparable in size to a modern viola but played upright), playing the semiquaver figurations in Guami’s Canzon a 4 sopra La Battaglia with clarity and precision. He and Coin passed the little motifs in Spanish monk Aguilera de Heredia’s Teinto de batalla expertly between them, adding a touch of vibrato to bring out the plainsong lines in the In nomines while the other viols wove their intricate counterpoint around them.

The audience could not be satisfied until two encores had been granted, taking us even further afield, to Scotland and Peru.

JANET BANKS