The viol player and conductor Jordi Savall led his ensemble Hespèrion XXI in a concert celebrating the musical heritage of the Mediterranean, as part of the first Mediterranean Forum, held in Barcelona.
Musicians from three countries
Savall brought together musicians from Syria, Türkiye and Spain. The Syrian singer Waed Bouhassoun sang and played the oud, alongside Moslem Rahal on the ney, a reed flute, Hakan Güngör on the kanun, Yurdal Tokcan on the oud and David Mayoral on percussion. Savall himself played the rebec and the vielle.
The programme
The concert moved around the shores of the Mediterranean:
- it opened with Koniali, a Cypriot song and dance shared by Greek and Turkish traditions;
- a Sephardic song, The rose blooms, recalled the Jewish communities expelled from Spain in 1492;
- Ya Mariam el bekr, a hymn to the Virgin Mary, is sung in Christian communities in Syria and Lebanon;
- the evening closed with the well-known refrain Al maya, al maya.
A bridge between cultures
Savall has spent decades exploring the music of the Mediterranean as a shared heritage, and the concert reflected that idea: Christian, Jewish and Muslim melodies were performed side by side, highlighting how much the peoples around the sea have in common. Old instruments and centuries-old songs created a conversation in which joy, grief, hope and devotion crossed borders easily.
Dinner at the Miró
After the concert, guests moved to the north courtyard of the Fundació Joan Miró on Montjuïc for a Mediterranean dinner inspired by Catalan cooking, including bread with tomato, marinated olives, anchovies from L’Escala, baked cod and small meat cannelloni.
The guests
The evening was hosted by Prensa Ibérica’s president, Javier Moll, and its vice-president, Arantza Sarasola. Guests included the historian and journalist Anne Applebaum and Sara Puig, president of the Fundació Miró, along with figures from Barcelona’s business and cultural life.
The Mediterranean Forum aims to bring together politicians, business leaders, academics and artists to discuss the shared challenges facing the countries of the region.
