KEY POINTS:
Jordi Savall and his Hesperion XXI colleagues obviously have a vast storehouse of music to draw on and, when Montserrat Figueras and Arianna Savall were indisposed for the group's Town Hall concert, an alternative programme was efficiently put into place.
The first three items provided a taste of what was to come. A Romanesca and Passamezzo moderno by Diego Ortiz climaxed in the full quintet enjoying the exotic equivalent of a medieval jam session; a Catalonian song showcased the lightish tenor voice of Ferran Savall, while another instrumental, Danza ritual, was a virtuoso turn for father Jordi Savall on the lira de arco.
Perhaps some in the audience, like me, were a mite disappointed that there was not more opportunity to hear Savall senior on his larger viola da gamba, playing the music that has very much made his name.
Two shapely Muzettes by Marin Marais and a pair of sprightly, bow-bouncing treats by Tobias Hume were not enough for those of us whose appetites for this instrument were whetted when Laura Vaughan brought her viola da gamba to the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Splendour of the Baroque series last year.
Among the strong points of Hesperion's multicultural mix was Dimitri Psonis igniting a number of offerings with the forceful strum of his medieval guitar or dancing tones of his santur, an Iranian cimbalon; another was the imperturbable drumming of Pedro Estevan.
Vocally, the most effective moment came in the unaccompanied ballad Marinero soy de amor, based on a Cervantes poem. However, Ferran Savall's songs were too often banal to the point of cheesy, especially after he replaced his theorbo with guitar.
The vocal talents of Figueras and Arianna Savall would indeed have been a welcome addition to the proceedings.
The encore was a hearty one; a Sephardic dance reminding me of those giddy reels that were so much a part of gigs by the Irish traditional group, The Chieftains. It brought out the immense collegiality of the five men, with Driss El Maloumi even tapping the body of his oud to engage in a spot of duelling drums with Estevan.
