Jordy Savall & Juilliard 415 – Alice Tully Hall – January 26, 2013
Savall is the hero of the early music movement – rescuing, retrieving, and putting again to life the written music of pre-Bach times. Many of these pieces are associated with equally obscure/obsolete dance styles. His instrument is the viol da gamba, a six-stringed jobber intermediate in size between a viola and a cello. It is held like a cello and bowed. Yang is also playing one – part of the viol “consort” portion of the ensemble. There is much that I don’t understand. Many of the students of the Juilliard 415 troupe also played early-music instruments that one would be hard pressed to identify or recognize. Fun trivia fact: the predecessor of the trombone was called a “sackbut”. Thus, we also have a student (Payne) plucking the theorbo (I didn’t see any strumming); the topmost strings (that is, closest to his head), I guess for drone or resonance, since they did not appear to receive any direct action.
Jordi Savall
Kevin Payne
Wen Yang