Music

14|11|07 // 20.00 // MARTINSKIRCHE

OPENING CONCERT

OPENING SPEECH
Guy Morin Regierungsvizepräsident und Vorsteher des
Justizdepartements Kanton BS
Niggi Ullrich Kulturbeauftragter Kanton BL

KAMMERORCHESTER BASEL
George Enescu Kammersymphonie op. 33 in E-Dur (1954)
GRIGORE LESE BUKAREST
Mioriţa
Horia-Roman Patapievici
President of the Institutul Cultural Român

STAVROPOLEOS CHOR BUKAREST
Byzantinische Musik
Gabriel Constantin Oprea, director

Horia-Roman Patapievici, a high-profi le philosopher and president of the Institutul Cultural Român, will elucidate the cultural importance of the Rumanian popular poem «Mioriţa», an epic ballad with motifs from the life of a shepherd, which, in its archaic signifi cance, is comparable with the «Song of the Nibelungs».

George Enescu (1881–1955), whose works of composition form the highpoint of classical music in Rumania, composed this chamber symphony for twelve instruments in the last few months of his life. Infl uenced as it is by the musical and thematic infl uences of his early youth, this composition can be regarded, by today's standards, as his musical legacy. The Stavropoleos Church in the heart
of Bucharest is one of the few Orthodox churches in Rumania in which the centuries-old tradition of Byzantine church music is still perpetuated. The Stavropoleos Choir has brought this church choral music to a broad, concert-going public.

18|11|07 // GARE DU NORD

11.00 // IDYLL and GUERRILLA
Ion Bogdan Stefanescu, flute // Emil Visenescu, clarinet // Diana Mos, violin // Valentina Sandu-Dediu, piano // Dan Dediu, piano
20.00 // HÉTEROPHONIES
Ensemble Profil

It was the Ernst von Siemens Foundation in Munich which made the establishment of the Profi l ensemble in 2003 possible. The Bucharest Ensemble, an experimental workshop for contemporary Rumanian music under the artistic direction of Dan Dediu, has an infl uence comparable to that of ensembles as renowned as Ensemble InterContemporain and Ensemble Modern. Individual members of the ensemble and the whole ensemble together will play works by the most important contemporary Rumanian composers - Myriam Marbe, Anatol Vieru, Ştefan Niculescu and Tiberiu Olah as well as symphonic poems by the younger generation: Doina Rotaru, Carmen Maria Cârneci and Violeta Dinescu.

20|11|07 // 20.00 // BURGHOF LÖRRACH
VOKAL- UND INSTRUMENTALMUSIK AUS RUMÄNIEN
Bucharest Metropolitan Ensemble

The Bucharest Metropolitan Ensemble will perform works by the great Rumanian composers of the 20th century, such as Myriam Marbe, Aurel Stroe, Anatol Vieru and Ştefan Niculescu, as well as pieces by the new generation of composers – Violeta Dinescu, Doina Rotaru and Tiberiu Olah. Half a year after the orchestra was established they were engaged by the American director Francis Ford Coppola for his fi lm «Youth Without Youth» (2007). This year the Bucharest Metropolitan Ensemble will also be presenting the richness of Rumanian vocal and instrumental music in the European cultural capital Sibiu, Hermannsstadt.

23|11|07 AND 24|11|07 // THE BIRD’S EYE JAZZ CLUB

SETBEGINN 21.00 AND 22.30 // TRANSYLVANIAN GROOVES
Nicolas Simion Group

23|11|07 // 18.00 BIS 19.30 // WORKSHOP BALKAN-JAZZ

Nicolas Simion was born in 1959 in the Carpathian Mountains and studied classical music in Bucharest. He developed a preference for improvised music and in the early 1980’s he started his first band, which quickly became the most successful jazz formation in the country. Simion’s saxophone playing is powerful and primitive, vibrates with energy and is nonetheless melodic. Béla Bartók has influenced his music, as have the melodies and rhythms of the folk music of his native Rumania. Simion fuses his jazz sound with American bebop, hardbop, funk, and with elements of world music and free improvisation.

24|11|07 // GOETHEANUM

16.30 // concert
Sorin Petrescu (piano) und Aurel Stroe (composition)

20.00 // THE EUMENIDS
Bucharest Metropolitan Ensemble

In his tripartite chamber opera «The trilogy of the closed city – a new Oresteia»
Aurel Stroe (*1932) draws on Aeschylus' tragedy, which traces the development from the principle of individual revenge into an understanding of democratic law. Stroe had already conceptualised his fi rst composition on the subject of «The Eumenides» in his youth, after he had observed people in an apartment block in Bucharest who were watching the dictator Ceauşescu and his wife in a television programme which followed the party line. «The Eumenides», the third part, was composed by Stroe in 1985. It will be presented in a semi-staged production and will be cast unusually with nine singers and a saxophone. In the same year he fl ed the Ceauşescu regime for America.

25|11|07 // 18.00 // MÜNSTER BASEL

SCHÄFERS PAVANE …
Nicoleta Paraschivescu, organ

The organ music which developed in Transylvania is closely connected to the culture of Siebenbürgen Sachsen and its Lutheran faith. At the same time cultural impulses from the surrounding areas, both immediate and further afield are palpable. A number of the musicians born in Siebenbürgen studied outside their homeland, others moved to Transylvania from abroad. Myriam Marbe (1931–1997) is an exception. She came from Bucharest and remained in Rumania all her life. She is one of the «golden generation» of Rumanian composers. Nicoleta Paraschivescu, who lives and works in Basel, plays the organ music from various époques of her homeland, Rumania.

25|11|07 // 20.00 // GARE DU NORD

TABU SUITE
Trio Contraste

Ion Bogdan Ştefănescu, solo flautist with the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra George Enescu, Sorin Petrescu and Doru Roman, piano soloist and first percussionist with the Philharmonic Orchestra Timişoara present established, contemporary music from Rumania. In 1990 these three exceptional musicians,
who perform together as the Trio Contraste were awarded the national prize
of the Rumanian Society of Composers. The trio makes guest appearances at
numerous major festivals.

27|11|07 // 20.00 // BURGHOF LÖRRACH
SHUKAR COLLECTIVE

The tones from the Balkans are booming: one of the most daring experiments is the Shukar Collective with the three Roma musicians Napoleon, already well-known from Taraf de Haïdouks, Tamango and Clasic, as its musical core. With husky vocals and staccato shouts of encouragement, combined with the rhythms of archaic instruments such as spoons, shallow hand-held and wooden drums, they keep the music of the Ursari, the bear-taming tribe, alive. This tradition is brought into the here and now by a funky electronic team, including DJ Vasile, admired throughout Europe. The idea behind the Shukar Collective is to re-orchestrate folksy pieces with modern technology and methods, without denying their provenance and originality.

2|12|07 // 16.00 // LANDGASTHOF RIEHEN
in cooperation with "Verein Riehen hilft Rumänien"

VOCES
Voces Quartett

In 1973 four musicians from the Musical Academy George Enescu in laşi joined forces to form the Voces Quartet. In their capacity as the National Ensemble of Rumanian radio, the Voces Quartet produced a recording of the complete chamber music works of George Enescu. Pablo Casals described him as «the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart», and for Yehudi Menuhin, his teacher Enescu was simply the «the absolute measure, in comparison to whom I judge everyone else». In addition to George Enescu, the Voces Quartet also devote themselves to Béla Bartók, another great figure whose musical roots lie in what is now Rumania.

05|12|07 // 19.30 // MARTINSKIRCHE
in cooperation with "Reihe Kammermusik Um Halb Acht"

GEISTLICHE UND WELTLICHE CHORMUSIK AUS RUMÄNIEN
Accoustic Chamber Choir

Singing Christmas carols, the «colinde», is an important component of Rumanian Christmas celebrations. The noun «colindă» (Christmas carol) gave rise to the verb «a colinda», which originally meant to scour a district and ramble about. The colinde are sung out on the streets, on Christmas Eve, in front of people's windows until the singers, often children, are invited into the house and given refreshments. The Accoustic Chamber Choir has gathered the best singers from a number of Rumanian choirs and developed its own profi le over a number of years. During the fi nal concert the Accoustic Chamber Choir will present secular and spiritual music.