22 October 2009 „Tous les matins du monde” – Jordi Savall's concert will inaugurate Festival

The 1st Joseph Conrad International Literature Festival in Krakow will be inaugurated with a concert by Jordi Savall whose programme, entitled Tous les matins du monde (All the Mornings of the World), will be dedicated to one of the guests of the Festival, Pascal Quignard. The musical performance will be interlaced with fragments of Quignard’s texts interpreted by a renowned Polish actor Krzysztof Globisz. The concert will begin at 9 pm on Monday, 2nd November, in St. Katherine’s Church, Augustiańska Street 7.

The music of early masters performed by Savall constitutes one of the most significant interpretative layers of Alain Corenau’s film Tous les matins du monde, based on the novel by Pascal Quignard, a French writer, winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt and the special guest of the 1st Joseph Conrad International Literature Festival. The film tells the story of Monsieur Sainte-Colombe, a viola da gamba player and teacher, who lived at the turn of the 17th and 18th c. Colombe returns home after many years of absence and after his wife’s death. He retreats into seclusion devoting his time only to music and taking care of his daughters. However, the virtuoso fame reaches the court of Louis XIV, who wishes to procure the musical master for his own royal orchestra. Colombe declines the offer. One day a young man, Marin Marais, arrives at Colombe’s estate in order to take viol lessons…

The inaugural concert of the Festival will take place in the evening of All Souls’ Day, a very special day. The progamme will include the improvisations by Mr. De Machy (Les Voix Humaines et al.), by Mr. de Sainte Colombe, father and son (Les Pleurs et al.) and especially by Marin Marais (Sonnerie de Ste. Geneviève du Mont-de-Paris, L’Arabesque, La Reveuse or the easily recognizable Folies d’Espagne). The audience will hear also the texts by Pascal Quignard, in five parts, translated into Polish by Krzysztof Rutkowski and interpreted by Krzysztof Globisz, a Polish theatre and TV actor, the dean of Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Teatralna im. Ludwika Solskiego or PWST) in Krakow.

Savall’s musical performance for Corenau’s film won the César Award. Savall’s instrument during this concert will be Basse de Viole à 7 cordes, Barak Norman, London 1697.

The concert from St. Katherine’s Church will be broadcast live by Program Drugi Polskiego Radia (the 2nd radio channel of the Polish Radio).

Jordi Savall is a Spanish-Catalan virtuoso viola da gamba player, a highly talented musician, instrumentalist, conductor as well as an assiduous researcher of early music, who has rediscovered many musical treasures. For over thirty years he has been reconstructing and performing early music, which had previously been lost and forgotten. Fascinated with early music he taught himself how to play the viola da gamba. Together with his wife, Montserrat Figueras, he created the following ensembles: Hespèrion XX, La Capella Reial de Catalunya (1987) and Le Concert des Nations (1989). His oeuvre contains over 170 recordings, for which he has been awarded numerous Midem Classical Awards (among others). His 2-CD album Don Quijote de la Mancha – Romances y Músicas was declared the best recording of 2006 and was nominated for the Grammy Award. Jordi Savall has earned many accolades, e.g.: Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (1988), La Medalla de Oro de las Bellas Artes (1998), Victoire de la Musique (2002), Medalla d’Or parlamentu Katalonii (2003). In 2008 Savall and his wife were named “Artists for Peace” by UNESCO.

Tickets for this exceptional concert are available at www.ticketonline.pl . Normal ticket is 50 zł, discount ticket is 30 zł. During the week before the Festival the tickets will be available also at selected Municipal Information Centres in Krakow (Punkt Sieci Informacji Miejskiej): ul. św. Jana 2 (St. John Street 2), in Pawilon Wyspiańskiego (the Wyspiański Pavilion) at pl. Wszystkich Świętych 2 (All Saints’ Square 2) and in Wieża Ratuszowa (the Town Hall Tower).

Before the concert, in the same evening (2nd November at 6:30 pm), the film by Alain Corenau Tous les matins du monde will be shown in Kino pod Baranami (Pod Baranami Cinema) at Rynek Główny 27 (the Main Market Square 27). The film will inaugurate the Festival’s “Literature and Film” series.