Following the success of Spirit of Armenia, Balkan Spirit enables us to discover another area of great musical tradition and intercultural dialogue: the Balkans. Alongside musicians from Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Turkey, Jordi Savall conducts his ensemble, Hespèrion XXI, and unveils the original lyricism of an instrumental and vocal repertoire that covers the entire spectrum of human emotions.
CD & Book
Review
“The performances are inventive, using an appropriate instrumentarium, so
we hear beguiling sounds plucked, bowed or blown. These tunes display a
sophistication of variation and rhythm; sometimes one is simply mesmerised by
the aching poignancy of it all.” The Sunday Times
Review
The booklet for this release from Jordi Savall and his Hespèrion XXI
ensemble, this time composed largely of Balkan musicians, weighs in at an
awe-inspiring 396 pages. The size is not due to any special plenitude of
information; indeed, two of the historical essays duplicate each other to a
large extent, and one is actually left wanting to learn more about the various
instruments one is hearing. Instead, the page count is inflated by the
translation of the material into no fewer than 13 languages, including Greek,
Croation, Turkish, and apparently Bulgarian. This is in line with
Savall's generally idealistic aims, outlined in an essay of his own that
stresses the rich cultural legacy generated by the unity of experience in the
region. Some of his assertions are open to question, for example that the word
“Balkan” is derived from the Turkish words for honey and blood. Savall plans
a further album of music under this title, but the derivation is suspect. At any
rate, the performances conform to Hespèrion XXI's usual high standards. As may
occur with Savall's recordings of purely popular or folk material, there are
times in the faster dances when you wish for the muddy intoxication that a
barroom or club performance of the same tune would bring. However, again as
usual, the variety and selection of the material give the listener a lot to chew
on and in a grand, global way raise issues that others have attacked only
piecemeal. Those fast dances, Savall seems to suggest, present a common fund of
material, heavily Gypsy in origin, that has been filtered through a variety of
local traditions from Turkish to Bulgarian, Greek, Serbian, Sephardic Jewish,
and more. The most entrancing pieces are the slow ones, which indeed one would
not hear in a bar and are suited to the more contemplative experience of
listening to a CD or digital file. Hear the Gypsy mallet percussion piece Azt
hittem hogy minden könnyem (track 8), which is absolutely hypnotic. Also of
special interest is track 14, Ciocârlia/Seva, which was composed for the
dedication of the Eiffel Tower in 1889; it is a fascinating fusion of Balkan
melody and Western tonality, and it's worth the purchase price of the album all
by itself. All the music is instrumental, but it may be that vocal music is
planned for the follow-up volume. Despite a few questions about the execution of
the project here, this is another in Savall's brilliant series of releases that
resurrect the traditional music of southern Europe in an entirely original
way. James Manheim – AllMusic