Music Review: Jordi Savall: Armenian Spirit

The Times (London)
August 25, 2012 Saturday
Edition 1; National Edition

Music CD Reviews
Staying In

Jordi Savall: Armenian Spirit ****

Haunting and tragic, this CD is a double-lament – for Jordi Savall’s
late wife, the singer Montserrat Figueras, who loved Armenian music,
and for Armenia, with its long history of foreign subjugation and
massacre. With meticulous scholarship, Savall and his group, HespÈrion
XXI, bring together an hour of Armenian traditional music: sinuous
tunes and dark timbres (the quivering Armenian duduk, prominent),
winding over drones or lugubrious drum patterns. It is hypnotic and
exquisitely melancholic. An accompanying booklet offers
thought-provoking essays about Armenia’s history and culture.

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