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Jordi Savall turns the Early Music Festival of Poblet Monastery into a great success
Held in UNESCO’s World Heritage Poblet Monastery, the first edition of the Festival of Ancient Music was a sell-out, and will have a second edition next year, according to the organisers. The Festival was launched by the Catalan conductor, interpreter, composer and researcher Jordi Savall, who in 2012 received the Léonie Sonning Prize, considered Music’s equivalent of the ‘Nobel Prize’. The event aimed “to compensate” for the lack of such music festivals in southern Catalonia and also to honour the memory of soprano Montserrat Figueras, who died in November 2011. Figueras was one of the greatest vocalists and experts in Early Music and Savall’s life partner. The first edition of Poblet Festival included 3 concerts by Jordi Savall, all played within the monastery’s church, which is the location of the most of the tombs of the old Catalan kings.
Poblet Monastery shows its restored 14th century cloister
The Cistercian monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and receives around 130,000 visitors a year. It has had an 800,000 euro renovation of its cloister. Lasting 7 months, the task was funded by the Catalan savings bank ‘La Caixa’. The work was unveiled last Saturday by the Catalan Minister of Culture, Ferran Mascarell.