| concept and musical direction Sonia Wieder-Atherton
with the musical help of Frank Krawczyk with Fanny Ardant
musicians
Sonia Wieder-Atherton, Aurélie Saraf Arpa
Chamber Ensemble of the Teatro of San Carlo in Naples conductor Gennaro Coppabianca
lighting François Thouret
stage manager Daniel Eudes
coproduction Théâtre de Caen, Instant Pluriel, SWA & CO
with the support of Théâtre de Saint Quentin en Yveline Scène Nationale
ant the participation of Fonds d’Action Sacem in collaboration with Just in Time s.r.l. – Mauro Diazzi / Nuova Opera Festival
CD Chants d’Est, sur le Sentier Recouvert is available from Naϊve
Chants d’Est is a journey. This show originates from the desire of the cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton to join the music of eastern Europe which she prefers – gathered in the record Chants d’Est, released in early 2009 by Naďve – and the lyrics of great writers, read by Fanny Ardant’s deep and velvety voice.
The début of Chants d’Est took place in December 2009 at the Chapiteau Romanès in Paris. Three evenings in which the musician and the actress, accompanied by the musicians of the Ensemble Niguna transported the tent audiences like gypsies in a universe beyond time, which transcends frontiers, crossing them like the Danube.ù Program
M. Tsvetaeva Mon Pouchkine, excerpt
S. Rachmaninov Vępres Op. 37 Nunc dimittis
Arr. Vsevolod Polonsky, Copyright 2003 by Hawkes and Son (London) Ltd F. Kafka Journal (1915), excerpt
E. Dohnany Ruralia Hungarica
Andante rubato, Alla zingaresca – presto Orch. F. Krawczyk
Traditionnel Juif Chanson dans le souvenir de Shubert
Arr. Sonia Wieder-Atherton, orch. F. Krawczyc
A. Tcherepnine Danse Tartare
Orch. F. Korch. F. Krawczyc
F. Krawczyk Sept jeux d’enfants d’après les melodies sur des poesies
Moraves de Janacek Jeux d’enfants 1 A P.E. (1914), excerpt
F. Krawczyk Jeux d’enfants 2 et 3
M. Tsvetaeva Le ciel brule (1916), excerpt
F. Krawczyk Jeux d’enfants 4 et 5
M. Tsvetaeva Tentative de Jalousie (1924), excerpt
Le ciel brule (1917), excerpt
F. Krawczyk Jeux d’enfants 6
M. Tsvetaeva Le ciel brule (1913), excerpt
F. Krawczyk Jeux d’enfants 7
M. Tsvetaeva Le ciel brule (1913), excerpt
S. Prokofiev Le champ des morts
(Alexandre Nevsky) avec l’autorisation des editions du Chant du monde
B. Martinu Variations sur un thème slave Arr. J. Telm avec l’autorisation de la Fondation Martinu
R. M. Rilke Premiere elegie de Duino, excerpt
Malher Ich Bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen Rückert-Lieder | Mitteleurope, Central Europe, a crossroads where different cultures mix. Under its protective wing, oppressive and fascinating at the same time, the great Austro-Hungarian empire gathered cultures fighting against their loss of identity. This resistance passes across love for the mother tongue, forbidden. Listening to it and the constant study of folklore themes, distinguish the special universe of composers such as Janácek, Mahler or Martinu. To interpret them is first and foremost to work on their relationship with the language. Farther East, it becomes a history of transmission. Music says what is impossible to describe. Within all the regimes across Russia, there is terror but also, beyond it, a force that sometimes implodes, sometimes explodes. What is said is said for all those who have no word. Attracted by this double resistance - one for the memory of their language, the other to tell what is forbidden – attracted by this place where I come from in the world, tirelessly, I listened again to the works that I knew and I discovered others, written for voice, choir, violin, orchestra, piano. I asked Franck Krawczyk to help me find a path between them, where, as in the case of Janácek, to find inspiration. And I chose a string orchestra to find the depth, the tension in Vepres Rachmaninov and the intensity in Alexander Nevsky by Prokofiev, and to blow up the virtuosity of the dances and the very rythmic pieces. Thus, the road we follow will lead from a tragic chant to a lullaby, from a Lied that recalls a dream, to a dance with gypsy accents, as if being led among the chapters of the same story.
Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Infinite power of Russia’s attraction, better than Gogol’s troika, what permits trying it, is the image of a large river that extends its yellow waters out of sight and sends waves everywhere, high waves, but without excess. On the banks, wild and desolate lands, broken blades of grass.
Franz Kafka The musical life in Budapest today can be summed up in one name: Dohnányi. [...] Often, after the
concert, he must walk home for an hour in the rain and snow!
Béla Bartók For the popular composer, musical sound is nothing but that refined sound that comes from the instrument; it is distorted by noise, dampness from living water or the Danube, green forests [...], opens its arms to the stars.
Leoš Janácek
My music is Czech, which nobody can deny, right?
Bohuslav Martinu
The Danube: it is the river along which different peoples meet, cross and mingle. It’s the river of Vienna and Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrade, it is the tape which crosses and surrounds the Hasburg Austria, whose mythology and ideology have made it the symbol of a plural and super-national koďnè, this empire whose rulers spoke “my peoples” and where the national anthem was sung in eleven languages. The Danube is the Germanomagyar-Slavic-Jewish-Roman Mitteleurope, a world “behind the nations.”
Claudio Magris, "Danube" |
