Le Concert des Nations in Vienna

Le Concert des Nations is a Spanish period-instrument orchestra founded in 1989 by Catalan viola da gamba player and conductor Jordi Savall. The ensemble performs Baroque, Classical and early Romantic repertoire using historically informed practice, and its recordings include works by Charpentier, Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Its name comes from François Couperin’s collection Les Nations. In 2002, the orchestra performed Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo under Savall at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, a production preserved on film. In 2019, Savall began the Beethoven Révolution academy and concert project, bringing young professional musicians into the ensemble for performances and recordings of all nine symphonies. The orchestra plays on instruments appropriate to each work’s period under Savall’s direction. Its vocal and staged projects frequently bring it together with La Capella Reial de Catalunya.

Jordi Savall is a Spanish viola da gamba player, conductor and early-music specialist, born in Igualada in 1941. His work ranges across medieval, Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, and he became widely known beyond classical audiences through the music for the film Tous les matins du monde. In 1974, Jordi Savall and soprano Montserrat Figueras founded Hespèrion XX, later renamed Hespèrion XXI, as an ensemble devoted to historical performance. He subsequently established the choir La Capella Reial de Catalunya and the period-instrument orchestra Le Concert des Nations, conducting them in concert programs built around specific composers, dynasties and cultural histories. He has taken these projects to concert halls including Carnegie Hall in New York and the Philharmonie de Paris.