Jordi Savall & Le Concert des Nations: Tous les Matins du Monde

Jordi Savall & Le Concert des Nations
Tous les Matins du Monde

Friday, March 4, 2022, 8pm
First Congregational Church

Le Concert des Nations
Manfredo Kraemer, violin
Charles Zebley, flute
Philippe Pierlot, seven-string bass viol
Lucas Harris, theorbo and guitar
Marco Vitale, harpsichord

Jordi Savall
seven-string bass viol by Barak Norman, London 1697 and director

The run time for this performance is approximately 75 minutes, with no intermission.

With the support of the Departament de Cultura of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Institut Ramon Llull. With the financial support of the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles Occitanie. Major support provided by The Bernard Osher Foundation

Program

From the Executive and Artistic Director

As springtime fast approaches, this weekend offers a perfect opportunity to sample the types of entertaining, diverse, and ambitious programs that make Cal Performances so special. The Joffrey Ballet, one of the crown jewels of American dance, arrives for a three-day residency (Mar 4–6), with a program featuring three highly anticipated West Coast premieres. (What a great way to conclude the company’s current six-year residency at UC Berkeley!) We also welcome the return of our longtime friends Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations with a sparkling program of early music featured in the classic 1991 film Tous les matins du monde (Mar 4); as well as the Cal Performances solo debut of the brilliant young soprano Angel Blue (with pianist Bryan Wagorn) in a recital including works by Mozart, R. Strauss, Rachmaninoff, and a powerful selection of traditional Black American spirituals (Mar 6).

I also want to make sure you know about another upcoming season highlight, the West Coast premiere of Ted Hearne and Saul Williams’ Place (Mar 12; a semi-staged secular oratorio), a bold meditation on the topographies of gentrification and displacement. One of this season’s Illuminations “Place and Displacement” events (see our website for more information), Place was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Music; it’s a remarkable work and something I don’t think you’ll want to miss. (The recording for the New Amsterdam label captured the attention of the music world, earning two 2021 Grammy nominations—for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Best Contemporary Classical Composition.)

March marks the time of year that traditionally finds Cal Performances operating on all cylinders. From now through the beginning of May, the remainder of our 2021–22 season is packed with adventurous programming. You won’t want to miss…

the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Mar 29 – Apr 3) returning to Zellerbach Hall for the first time since the initial pandemic shutdown in 2020; Ailey programs—featuring more than a dozen works from the company’s legendary repertory—have just been announced, so make sure to check our website for details
the one and only London Symphony Orchestra (Mar 20), appearing under the direction of superstar conductor Sir Simon Rattle, in a program of orchestral masterworks
pianist extraordinaire Mitsuko Uchida (Mar 27) playing and directing Mozart with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
the renowned English Baroque Soloists (Apr 10) with conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner in a transfixing program of works by Mozart and Haydn
Angélique Kidjo, our 2021–22 artist-in-residence, in her new music-theater piece Yemandja (a much-anticipated Cal Performances co-commission and Illuminations event, Apr 23).

Fasten your seatbelts; we have all of this—plus much more—in store for you!

We’re very proud of our updated winter brochure and know that a few minutes spent reviewing our schedule—in print or online—will reveal a wealth of options for your calendar; now is the perfect time to guarantee that you have the best seats for all the events you plan to attend.

I know you join us in looking forward to what lies ahead, to coming together once again to
encounter the life-changing experiences that only the live performing arts deliver. We can’t wait to share it all with you during the coming months.

Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances

P.S. – Stay tuned for exciting news about our brilliant 2022–23 season, to be announced in April!

the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Mar 29 – Apr 3) returning to Zellerbach Hall for the first time since the initial pandemic shutdown in 2020; Ailey programs—featuring more than a dozen works from the company’s legendary repertory—have just been announced, so make sure to check our website for details
the one and only London Symphony Orchestra (Mar 20), appearing under the direction of superstar conductor Sir Simon Rattle, in a program of orchestral masterworks
pianist extraordinaire Mitsuko Uchida (Mar 27) playing and directing Mozart with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
the renowned English Baroque Soloists (Apr 10) with conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner in a transfixing program of works by Mozart and Haydn
Angélique Kidjo, our 2021–22 artist-in-residence, in her new music-theater piece Yemandja (a much-anticipated Cal Performances co-commission and Illuminations event, Apr 23).

Fasten your seatbelts; we have all of this—plus much more—in store for you!

Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances

P.S. – Stay tuned for exciting news about our brilliant 2022–23 season, to be announced in April!

About the Performance

All the Mornings of the World: Baroque dialogues; grace and folly

Following the huge success of Alain Corneau’s film Touts les matins du monde (1992 César Award for the Best Original Music soundtrack and another seven Césars), based on the book of the same name by Pascal Quignard, and the triumph of Marin Marais and François Couperin’s music with the public, Jordi Savall and some of the musicians who took part in that original recording now commemorate its 30th anniversary. In so doing, they pay tribute to Alain Corneau and Pascal Quignard, and to the other musicians of France’s grand siècle whose work the film helped to make more widely known: Lully, the intendant of Louis XIV’s music, who shaped the musical tastes of a whole century, but also François Couperin and, of course, the film’s two protagonists, Sainte-Colombe the elder (with his concerts for two viols) and Marin Marais. This concert celebrates the luminous virtuosity of these wonderful pieces for viol—their nostalgia and reverie—which, thanks to Jordi Savall, gave the film its extraordinary depth.

“I remember the first time I met Jordi Savall, in 1990,” writes Pascal Quignard. “He had read the novel: such was his concentration that I imagined it was Sainte-Colombe himself…. They recorded at the dead of night. It was cold. And I fell asleep on a bench in the chapel [Saint Lambert des Bois]; I remember very little about the occasion. There was an old 17th-century score on which Jordi copied out by hand Sainte-Colombe’s piece entitled Les Pleurs, and underneath it he wrote, “For Pascal, a memento of a dream”…. Sometimes dreams have a life far beyond the night on which they are dreamed.”