Montserrat Figueras

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Montserrat Figueras.

Montserrat Figueras i Garcia ([ munsəˈrat fiˈɣeɾəs i ɡərˈsi.ə ]) (born March 15, 1942 in Barcelona , Catalonia , † November 23, 2011 in Bellaterra, municipality of Cerdanyola del Vallès near Barcelona) was a Catalan soprano who specialized in early music . She interpreted a repertoire of music from the Middle Ages , the Renaissance and the Baroque . Her artistic work was closely linked to that of her husband, the gambist and musicologist Jordi Savall , with whom she founded the ensembles Hespèrion XX , La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations and realized numerous concerts and recordings of early music.

life and work

Montserrat Figueras was born into a very music-loving family. She studied acting and singing with Jordi Albareda in Barcelona . At a young age she gave her first concert with the Catalan ensemble for early music Ars Musicae under Enric Gispert . Over the years she has developed an independent concept for the interpretation of early vocal music from the troubadours to the baroque. Historically and musically, it drew from the original sources of early music and was independent of the post-romantic tradition of performing early music.

In 1968 Figueras married Jordi Savall and accompanied him to Basel. Here she deepened her education at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and at the Basel Music Academy with Kurt Widmer , Thomas Binkley and later with Eva Kraznei .

From 1974 to 1989 she worked at the side of her husband as a soprano in the jointly founded ensembles Hespèrion XX (now: Hespèrion XXI ; founded in 1974 with the lutenist Hopkinson Smith ), Capella Reial de Catalunya (founded in 1987) and Le Concert des Nations ( Founded in 1989).

In 1991 she made her debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona with the opera Una cosa rara o sia Bellezza ed onestà (“A Rare Thing or Beauty and Honesty”) by Vicente Martín y Soler under the direction of Jordi Savall. In 1993 she gave the same opera L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi .

The singer and her husband founded the record label Alia Vox in 1998 , through which they released more than fifty records. Her repertoire of recordings ranged from original Latin to polyphonic music of the Renaissance and all musical-historical intermediate stages. The following pictures are examples of the artistic breadth of the couple:

1978: Cansós de Trobairitz ( Trobairitz poetry, around 1200)
1979: Llibre Vermell de Montserrat (Pilgrimage Songs of the 14th Century from Montserrat)
1991: Cançons de la Catalunya Mil·lenària (songs from the millennial tradition of Catalonia)

Montserrat Figueras has performed frequently in Europe, the United States and Asia. She passed on her knowledge of early music and its performance techniques in many courses.

Prizes and awards

Figueras has received numerous international awards for her more than 60 records and CD recordings, such as the Grand Prix de l'Académie du Disque Français , the Dutch Edison Klassiek , the Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque (1992) and the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles-Cros (1993). In 2001 she was awarded a Grammy for her life's work, the revival of early music . In 2003 she received the title of "Official Representative of French Art and Literature" from the French government. In 2008, Montserrat Figueras and her husband Jordi Savall were declared “Artists for Peace” by UNESCO . In 2011 she received the Saint George Cross from the Catalan government, Generalitat de Catalunya in Barcelona, for her commitment to early music . In the same year she received a Grammy for her CD book Dinastia Borgia. Església i poder al Renaixement ("The Borgia Dynasty. Church and Power in the Renaissance").

family

Montserrat Figueras, mother of musician Ferran Savall and Arianna Savall , passed away November 23, 2011 as a result of a year earlier diagnosed cancer disease at her home in Bella Terra ( Cerdanyola del Vallès , northern metropolitan area of Barcelona). She was buried on November 25, 2011 in the Pedralbes monastery. Montserrat Figueras had given concerts and contributed to music recordings until August 2011. The news of her death hit the music world unexpectedly because she had not made her suffering public.

Discography

  • 1982 - Battaglie e Lamenti, Battle and Lament (archive production)
  • 1983 - Girolamo Frescobaldi, Arie e canzone (Philips)
  • 1984 - Giulio Caccini, Le nuove musiche, con la Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (German Harmonia Mundi)
  • 1985 - Tobias Hume, Poeticall musicke, con Hespèrion XX (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)
  • 1988 - El Canto de la Sibilla, 1st Catalunya, con La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Astrée)
  • 1988 - Claudio Monteverdi, Vespro della Beata Vergine, con La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Astrée)
  • 1990 - Luis de Milán, El maestro II. Sonetos, villancicos y romances, con Hopkinson Smith (Astrée)
  • 1990 - Bartomeu Càrceres, Villancicos & Ensaladas, con La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Astrée)
  • 1990 - Cançons de la Catalunya millenària - Planys & Llegende, con La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Astrée)
  • 1991 - Lope de Vega, Intermedios del Barroco Hispánico, con Hespèrion XX (Astrée)
  • 1993 - Tarquinio Merula, Su la cetra amorosa, arie e capricci a voce sola, con Jordi Savall e altri (Astrèe)
  • 1996 - El Canto de la Sibila, 2nd Galicia-Castilla, con La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Naïve Records)
  • 1997 - Jose Marín, Tonos Humanos, con Rolf Lislevand e altri (Alia Vox)
  • 1999 - Battaglie & Lamenti, con Hespèrion XX (Alia Vox)
  • 2000 - Diaspora Sefardì con Hespèrion XX (Alia Vox)
  • 2003 - Ninna Nanna (Alia Vox)
  • 2004 - El cant de la Sibilla, 3rd Mallorca - València, con La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Alia Vox)
  • 2005 - Don Quixote de la Mancha. Romances y Mùsicas, con La Capella Reial de Catalunya (Alia Vox)
  • 2006 - Lux Feminae (900-1600) (Alia Vox)
  • 2009 - Le Royaume Oublié (Alia Vox)
  • 2009 - La barca d'amore (Alia Vox)
  • 2010 - Dinastia Borja (Alia Vox) con Hesperion XXI e Jordi Savall - Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance 2011
  • 2011 - Canti della Catalogna Millenaria (Alia Vox)
  • 2011 - El cant de la Sibilla, 4th Catalunya (Alia Vox)
  • 2012 - Montserrat Figueras. The voice of emotion, tributo (Alia Vox)

literature

  • Wolfgang Sander: Montserrat Figueras - Iberia's old music, but without dogma. In: FAZ from March 1, 2010

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Muere la soprano Montserrat Figueras. In: La Vanguardia , November 23, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b Discogràfica Alia-Vox, In Memoriam Montserrat Figueras ( Memento of the original of November 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of Alia Vox . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.alia-vox.com
  3. ↑ Article del diari Ara , 23 de setembre
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Mor la soprano Montserrat Figueras. Diari Ara , November 23, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b enciclopedia.cat: Montserrat Figueras
  6. ↑ The German-language article has been supplemented with essential information from the corresponding article on the Catalan Wikipedia as of November 25, 2011 (evening), including the original sources given there.
  7. ↑ a b La soprano catalana Montserrat Figueras, nomenada Oficial de l'Ordre Francesa d'Arts i Lletres.
  8. ↑ La Unesco distingeix el Músic Jordi Savall i la soprano Montserrat Figueras com a artistes per la pau.
  9. ↑ El Govern atorga la Creu de Sant Jordi a prop d'una de cinquantena personalitats i Entitats. In: Diari Ara , April 12, 2011.
  10. ↑ Vilaweb, 25 de novembre de 2011
personal data
SURNAME Figueras, Montserrat
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Figueras i Garcia, Montserrat; Figueras García, Montserrat
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish soprano
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 2011
Place of death Barcelona