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Hashtag Lab is a home full of nooks and architectural surprises. We have already performed for you in a concert hall, a workshop, a rehearsal room, we jumped out of a wardrobe in the cloakroom, we dialogued with a garland of tomatoes in the garden, we screened an opera on the patio. This time we are climbing onto the roof to play a program that is our fantasy about contemporary serenade.
Settle comfortably on deck chairs on a warm evening and listen to the music of Kaiji Saariaho and Salvatore Sciarrino — two masters of musical painting. Let the ephemeral sounds of nocturnes and serenades blend freely with the voices of the city, the rustling of fruit trees and gusts of wind.
Hashtag Ensemble celebrates a decade of artistic activity and for this occasion presents cooperative musicians in solo works. The Hashtaggers, who have been performing for years in various chamber ensembles, in their jubilee year present their individual musical interests and prepare works that reflect their own sensitivity. In the concert Spins and Spells we will hear flute, violin, accordion, cello and viola. Thanks to the location of the concert on the roof, we hope that these will not be micro-solo recitals, but a kind of “site-specific” chamber music, in which instrumental parts will dialogue with the sounds of the city.
If we were to mention the composers whose works are particularly close to us at Hashtag Ensemble, Salvatore Sciarrino and Kaija Saariaho would certainly be among them. Sciarrino’s opera Aspern we had the pleasure of preparing in audio-video form during the pandemic, and then stage it at Studio Theatre in collaboration with the Warsaw Autumn festival. Sciarrino’s musical painting, despite the fact that it may impress the listener as naturally constructed, delicate textures (often so ephemeral that they are barely audible), in fact requires great virtuosity, concentration and color imagination. Kaija Saariaho was already present in our repertoire, among other things as part of the TIMELESS project for the Festival Music of Faith Music of Peace. Her moving Cendres sounded then alongside works by Georg Crumb and Morton Feldman. The outstanding Finnish composer, who in 2019 was recognized by BBC as the greatest living female composer, spoke about her dream-like works in this way: I treat a dream as a gateway to hidden beings – for example death and love – basic things we have no idea about.
How can contemporary serenade sound on a long June evening? Will summer concerts on the roof become a permanent part of the Hashtag Lab program? Discover it with us.
Program:
Salvatore Sciarrino All’aure in una lontanza for flute
Kaija Saariaho Nocturne for violin
Salvatore Sciarrino Vagabonde Blu for accordion
Kaija Saariaho Spins and Spells for cello
Kaija Saariaho Vent Nocturne for viola and electronics
Performing:
Ania Karpowicz flute
Marta Piórkowska violin
Paweł Janas accordion
Dominik Płociński cello
Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska viola
Realization:
Ania Karpowicz program concept and text
Karol Tomoki Yamazaki visual identification
Wojciech Błażejczyk, Kosma Standera sound direction
Marta Piórkowska production
https://hashtaglab.pl/event/obroty-i-zaklecia-2/
The Contemporary Music Space Hashtag Lab is co-financed by the Capital City of Warsaw.
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