Montserrat Figueras
Montserrat Figueras i Garcia ( born March 15, 1942 in Barcelona, Catalonia, † November 23, 2011 in Bella Terra, community Bellaterra, near Barcelona ) was a Spanish specialist in early music soprano. She interpreted a wide repertoire of music from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Your artistic work was closely linked with that of her husband, the viola da gamba player and musicologist Jordi Savall, with whom she shared the ensembles Hespèrion XX Capella Reial de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations and founded numerous concerts and recordings realized from early music.
Life and work
Montserrat Figueras was born into a very music-loving family. She studied acting and singing at Albareda Jordi in Barcelona. At a young age she gave her first concert with the Catalan ensemble for early music ARS MUSICAE under Enric Gispert. It drew itself over the years a completely self- concept for the interpretation of early vocal music of the troubadours to the Baroque. This concept derives from a historical and musical terms from the original sources of early music. It is completely independent of the post-Romantic tradition of the performance of early music.
1968 married Figueras Jordi Savall and accompanied him to Basel. Here she deepened her studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel and at the Music Academy in Basel with Kurt Widmer, Thomas Binkley and later with Eva Kraznei.
From 1974 to 1989 she worked at her husband's side as a soprano in the jointly established ensembles Hespèrion XX (now XXI Hespèrion; established in 1974 together 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 ossia Belezza ed onestà " ( a rare thing or beauty and honesty ) of Vicente Martín y Soler, conducted by Jordi Savall. In 1993 she gave the same opera " L' Orfeo " ( Orpheus ) by Claudio Monteverdi.
The singer and her husband founded the record label in 1998 ALIA VOX, over which they gave out more than fifty plates. Her repertoire of shots had a circumference of original Latin to the polyphonic music of the Renaissance and of all music history intermediates. The following pictures are examples of the artistic breadth of the couple:
Montserrat Figueras concerted frequently in Europe, the United States and in Asia. She gave her profound knowledge of ancient music and their special performance techniques in many courses on.
Prizes and awards
Figueras has received numerous international awards such as the " Grand Prix de l' Académie du Disque Français ", the " L' Edison Kladiek ", the " Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque, the for their more than 60 disks and CD recordings " Gran Premi de la Nova Academia del disc ( 1992) and the " Gran Premi de l' Academia Charles Cros (1993). For her life's work, the revival of early music, she was honored with a 2001 Grammy. In 2003 she received from the French Government the title "Official representative of the French Art and Literature". Montserrat Figueras in 2008 and her husband Jordi Savall by UNESCO were declared to be " artists for peace". In 2011 she was awarded the St. George Cross of the Catalan regional government in Barcelona for their dedication to the old music. In the same year she won a Grammy for their CD - book " Dinastía Borgia. Església i poder al Renaixement " ( The dynasty of the Borgia. Church and Power in the Renaissance ).
Family
Montserrat Figueras was the mother of musician Ferran Savall Arianna Savall and.
Montserrat Figueras died on 23 November 2011 as a result of a year earlier of cancer diagnosed suffering at her home in Bellaterra ( Bellaterra, northern metropolitan area of Barcelona) accompanied by her husband, her children and other family members. She was buried on 25 November 2011 at the Monastery of Pedralbes. Montserrat Figueras gave 2011 concerts until August and participated in music recordings. The news of her death hit the music world unexpected because they had not made their suffering public.