LA VOIX DE L’EMOTION II

Referència: AVDVD 9904

• Montserrat Figueras

It is more than two years since the sudden departure of Montserrat Figueras on 23 November, 2011. A new, long stage in our life has come and gone like a sigh, a sigh that has been encompassed and marked by the contrast between the void of a definitive physical absence and the immensely rich memory of the life we had in common, which remains intensely present. The silences and the tears which filled our heart during the early days of this painful stage, which was also filled with regrets and deep nostalgia, gradually gave way – like the rays of sunshine after a storm – to positive thoughts of gratitude and joy. A feeling of profound gratitude to one who for more than 40 years was an attentive, faithful, sensitive companion, and above all a genuine muse, a constant inspiration and partner in all our endeavours.

It is more than two years since the sudden departure of Montserrat Figueras on 23 November, 2011. A new, long stage in our life has come and gone like a sigh, a sigh that has been encompassed and marked by the contrast between the void of a definitive physical absence and the immensely rich memory of the life we had in common, which remains intensely present. The silences and the tears which filled our heart during the early days of this painful stage, which was also filled with regrets and deep nostalgia, gradually gave way – like the rays of sunshine after a storm – to positive thoughts of gratitude and joy. A feeling of profound gratitude to one who for more than 40 years was an attentive, faithful, sensitive companion, and above all a genuine muse, a constant inspiration and partner in all our endeavours.

Then came the necessary, inevitable end to the initial phase, which, thanks to long periods of vital reflection on the meaning of life and the viability and continuity of our musical projects, enabled us to adapt to a new emotional and musical life. As the months passed, we had to learn to transform this feeling of profound sadness into an expression of generosity, welcoming it as a new and intimate friend who will accompany and remain with us forever. Intimate memories of so many mornings and days which will never return, but also moments of consolation thanks to the warm presence of her spirit and the indelible memory of her beautiful humanity.

A thousand images of precious memories finally enabled us to achieve without too much resistance that essential stage of having to come to terms, at the very deepest level, with the real meaning of the word impermanence. Without impermanence, life itself would not be possible, but it is the power of memory which makes that impermanence acceptable; thanks to emotion and beauty, the spirit never dies.

The various lullabies, songs, romances, arias, lamentations and songs in praise of the Virgin Mary that are brought to life by Montserrat in this second collection of “The Voice of Emotion II” are witness to the wonderful continuing presence of the human and spiritual message of her art. Our senses will be touched by such an infinite range of expressions and sounds of pure beauty that this new “Voice of Emotion” will remain forever etched in our memory.

Free of all showy or superficial artifice, whether singing the varied but always poignant melodies of a Portuguese lullaby, a Golden Age villancico, a Sephardic lament, the recitar cantando of Giulio Caccini or Claudio Monteverdi, ostinato airs by Tarquinio Merula, dance songs by José Marin, Fernando Sor’s Lagrime d’affano, Max Reger’s sweet evocation of the Virgin Mary or the tender Catalan lullaby which concludes this selection, the voice of Montserrat Figueras caresses and enfolds us in a thousand sweet sensations, a thousand tears of nostalgic memory or radiant joy, a thousand evocations which will stand out in our memory as peaks of boundless shared emotion and grace.

JORDI SAVALL
In flight from Miami to Seattle
Evening-night of 27th February, 2014

Translated by Jacqueline Minett