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The Propuls Ensemble - Romanian Premiere of the Wind's Rose - Pieces for Salon Orchestra by Mauricio Kagel

Tuesday, 9 October 2012 , ora 9.17
 
On Sunday, 7th October, the Propuls ensemble, conducted by Alexandru Solonaru, presented at the National University of Music in Bucharest, the Romanian premiere of Südwesten, Norden and Westen from The Wind's Rose - pieces for Salon Orchestra, by Mauricio Kagel.

This concert is a sequel to last year's March event, when I presented the first five Pieces of the Windrose. During one of his classes, Mr. Dan Dediu introduced us to parts by Kagel - a composer I knew very little at the time - and this is how it all started.It is due to Mr. Dediu's magical touch that this music instantly reached our hearts. This is how Mihai Măniceanu, my colleague from the ensemble, and I, started thinking about performing all these pieces at some point in the future.We managed to present five last year and three this year; next, we will be performing Südwesten, Norden and Westen from the Wind's Rose.We believe that our audience also needs to feel this modern vibration characteristic to contemporary music: a fine marriage of music, musical theatre , stories, riddles and journeys.The 2000s are the era of journeys, just like the salon orchestra would travel through sound in the early 1900s.Starting from the visual components used by Mauricio Kagel, we are able to do this even better.

How would you describe the pieces you will be performing on Sunday?

An amazing musical journey; Kagel manages to transpose into sounds the South-American magic realism. It is a geographical and historical travel, from Mexico to Polynesia, then to New Zealand, Indonesia and Fiji.The next piece - Norden - is a musical journal of one of Mircea Eliade's novels, Kagel, read when he was a student in Buenos Aires; it deals with Shamanism and Archaic Techniques on Ecstasy. The third journey - Westen - is about the primitive nature of American music, despite the level of progress they have reached. Its origins are African and this is clearly reflected in jazz music.This piece takes us from Western Africa to the West, from old music to blues and jazz.

What is the next project of the Propus Ensemble?

The next project will take shape at the end of October - a new Romanian premiere presenting a few musical pieces by Karlheinz Stockhausen, a composer Romanians know little of.

The piece is called Tierkreis, and the instrumental theatre parts are replaced by live drawings by the Swiss illustrator Kati Rickenbach. There have been projects of this kind and also drawing concerts, but not in Romania, and not on contemporary chords.



Andreea Chiselev
Translated by Gianina-Aniela Casleanu
MTTLC graduate, Bucharest University