Daughter of the viola player and director Jordi Savall , a true living legend of early European music, and Montserrat Figueras , one of the pioneers of baroque singing in Spain, Arianna Savall (Basel, 1972) had extensive musical training in Barcelona, ​​Toulouse and Basel. As a harpist and singer, she collaborated with her father’s groups and with many others on the international scene, especially until in 2008 she founded her own group (Hirundo Maris) together with the one who is now her husband, the Norwegian Petter Udland Johansen . After appearing in almost fifty record references, Arianna Savall offers her first album completely solo on her family label (Alia Vox).
–Why does Arianna get into this labyrinth
–Uy, a labyrinth of seven harps, yes. For a long time both my father and my husband Petter insisted that it would be nice to make a record showing the different ancient harps, because there is a lot of work to be done to spread their sound. They encouraged me, because I’m more into playing in ensembles . I like dialogue much more, with our group and with others. Playing alone has been quite a challenge . I have enjoyed it very much. I am lucky to have wonderful instruments, thanks also to a great friendship with the two luthiers I work with, Rainer Thurau , who makes baroque harps, and Franz Reschenhofer., which makes medieval diatonic harps. So this is a labyrinth of seven harps, but a happy labyrinth, which enriches you, because the sound of the harp is very sweet, very loving .
-It was inevitable that Arianna would sooner or later makean album called Labyrinth, of course.
-Hahaha. Yes. But it was only one of the five or six proposals that I made. At Alia Vox we are a team and it was the team that ended up choosing this one.
“Since you love these harps so much, introduce them to me.
–Yes, they are the seven main harps that circulated in Europe between the Middle Ages and the Baroque. In Spain the harp had an incredible importance. In the eighteenth century it disappeared from the scene, like other instruments, but until then it was one of the most cited and used. First of all, we have the Romanesque harp , which we find in many beautiful iconographies in church sculptures. It is a small harp. All medieval instruments are tiny. People traveled a lot, on horseback, on foot, and it had to be easy to carry. Then the Gothic harp appears , which is more stylized, like the Gothic churches, finer, lighter. The romanica has a darker sound. The gothic begins to be more crystalline, it has more bass. I also play two instruments that are typical of Spain, which only appear here. one is broken, which is seen a lot in Galicia and throughout the north of Spain, and which is a psalter-harp. He played a very nice rota by the luthier Carlos Paniagua, who made a copy of the instrument that is in the Portico de la Gloria. The other exclusively Iberian instrument is the medieval double harp . There is a beautiful, very realistic triptych in the Monasterio de Piedra, where the double harp from the 14th century appears. It’s like a Romanesque harp, because of the shape, but double. This means that there was already a need to make chromatisms. It is a very special harp, which was played a lot in the Catalan-Aragonese court. This harp traveled to Naples and from there the doppia harp was born , already at the end of the 15th century. From her, who did not have a very long life, was born the tre registri doppia harp, which the Italians called it, that is, thetriple harp , which is already the harp of Monteverdi’s Orfeo. It was played all over Europe. It has two diatonic rows and one chromatic row, with fantastic possibilities for chromaticism. The triple harp also arrives in Spain, but the Spanish were very proud of their harp, the crossed harp , which was only played in the Iberian Peninsula and in America. The Spanish harp has a more earthy sound, with a lot of character. The triple harp is more heavenly, sweeter. They have very different colors.
–Why has it taken so long for the harp to be vindicated for historicist interpretations
-There are no historical instruments left. My father was lucky enough to play on authentic violas, but the harps that have survived (there are some very beautiful ones in the Avila museum) are in a state that does not allow them to be played. It happens as with lutes, but the lute tradition is stronger. In Spain the classical harp dominated for a long time. There wasn’t much room for other harps , like Celtic or historical ones. Little by little the old music movement was taking them out. Luthiers also appeared. At the moment when there are good luthiers who make good instruments, musicians dare to play.
-And teachers were missing too, of course.
Yes, of course, but someone has to start. My teacher was Andrew Lawrence-King, an extraordinary musician and a man who feels great love for Spain. I think he has played everything that can be played with the Iberian harp. It was a huge inspiration for all of us.
–One of his specialties is to sing accompanying himself. There are few who do that in the realm of early music.
-Because it’s not easy. You have to have the talent for both specialties, a good voice and know how to play an instrument with a level. I was lucky enough to be trained in both fields from a very young age. When I started with the Celtic harp, I already sang a lot with the harp. In the Celtic countries, Ireland, Britain, Scotland, there is also this tradition of singing. The harp is an instrument that combines very well with the voice. It is a magical combination. If you accompany yourself it is like even more magical. It is a job that has to be done. Coordinate the two. But you are either born with it or you are not. I’ve seen it since I teach, there are people who have that talent and who don’t.
–Anyway, on this album she only sings in four of the sixteen pieces…
–Yes, because I wanted to leave more space for the harps alone. I do very personal things, that have been with me for a long time, and others that are newer and that have been a challenge for me. I recorded the album in 2018 at the Flawinne Castle in Belgium , in a very nice room with rather dry acoustics, but I wanted this intimate, close sound.
–Can you comment on the repertoire
– There are pieces by troubadours , which have always fascinated me, I consider myself a bit of a 21st century troubadour, because I also compose. Specifically, there is a French and a Catalan troubadour, a Cantiga de Santa Maria and some pieces from the Renaissance, like that beautifulFantasia de Mudarra about this harpist Ludovico, about whom we do not know much, some say he was Italian, but it is not really known, although apparently he was a great virtuoso. Mudarra was a vihuelist, but he also played the harp. The harp has always been between two worlds, sharing keyboard and vihuela music . Both in Spain and in Italy many composers wrote for keyboard, harp and vihuela. There is little repertoire for the harp in particular, but a lot thought for the three types of instrument. Finally, the Baroque occupies the most important space. I wanted to make this Espanoleta de Ribayaz , which I love. And then with the foil I have done something special. I loved listening to my father when he studied the pages. And I really like composing.I already had this creative side when I was studying piano as a child. And apply it on the harp. So for the Folias de Espana I took Gaspar Sanz ‘s , which are written for baroque guitar, but in its prologue he also talks about the harp, and they do very well. And then I also took from Santiago de Murcia, from Ribayaz, from Marais , and in between I make my own improvisations. Sometimes I fix improvisations in concerts and they become a composition, because I always do them that way, while there are parts that I leave free and they are always improvised. On the album they are fixed forever, but at concerts, no, I do it differently. So from an improvisation comes a composition or an arrangement .
–And there’s also Kapsberger
– I’m a fan of Kapsberger . His music sounds beautiful on the harp. We harpists are a bit of a chameleon, we can play a lot of lute repertoire. In the Toccata Arpeggiata Kapsberger left only the chords, an incredible harmonic sequence, very modern for its time. Theorbists do it in one way, the versions with triple harp are done in another way, and here I wanted to look for something different, to look for something that no one has done. That is something that I am passionate about. With the triple harp you can experiment a lot . I made an arrangement that is very original, so far no one has done it like this.
–Does the last name weigh
–Yes. It is a pity. I would like to say the opposite. But if.Sometimes I think that if Arianna Maier or Martinez had called me it would have been much easier for many things ; for others more difficult, I do not deny it. And that happens especially in the southern countries, France, Spain, Italy, where there is this mentality that means that the children of famous artists are not given enough space. In the north of Europe these labels weigh less . And it has been a hindrance. I have had to show my own personality a lot. I really like old music, I love what my father does. But I have had to further develop my most creative part, as a composer, as an arranger , it is a more personal part. I felt I had to find something else. I would have liked to do only old music, and in fact this album is all about old music. And of course the basis of what I do is old music. I also really like traditional music. When we founded Hirundo Maris we had it clear: we would give a lot of space to this more creative part, with old or traditional instruments.
–You live between Switzerland and Spain, how is the pandemic
doing
–I teach at the University of Zurich and classes have been maintained. We have been lucky, because in Switzerland there has never been a hard confinement , we have always been able to go for a walk in nature, and in Spain we have had the concerts. We have to congratulate Spain, because from July the concerts worked. I wonder why other countries have not followed the Spanish model more. In a theater, in a large room or church, everyone sitting in silence with their mask, there is hardly any risk. Except for the things we had in Catalonia and some that we were able to do in Austria and Switzerland until October, everything else was cancelled. There is a lot of uncertainty. Although we took the opportunity to record a new album that will be released in September on the Fuga Libera label.
–Tell me more…
–It is a very original album, because we make music from the 19th and 20th centuries (Garcia Lorca, Toldra, Schumann, Schubert, Faure…) originally written for voice and piano, but we have adapted it for the group, with two guitars, triple harp, violin, double bass and percussion. It will have a very special sound, very different from that of the piano, a sound that goes better with our voices, that we seek naturalness. And we have other projects in mind, although the record world is dying . People don’t buy records anymore. That golden age that my parents lived, of selling 50,000 at 50,000, our generation no longer knew. Tous les matins du monde sold a million copies . It has caught us in full transformation of the environment. But on the other hand, the programmers want new programs, and we have to try new things, whether we can record them or not, to see how all that works.
