Obroty i Zaklęcia
Hashtag Lab is a home full of nooks and architectural surprises. We have played for you in the concert hall, the studio, the practice room; we have jumped out of the cloakroom wardrobe, held a dialogue with a garland of tomatoes in the garden, projected an opera on the patio. This time we climb to the roof to perform from there a programme that is our fantasy on the theme of the contemporary serenade.
Settle comfortably into sun loungers on a warm evening and lose yourselves in the music of Kaija Saariaho and Salvatore Sciarrino — two masters of musical painting. Let the ephemeral sounds of nocturnes and serenades mingle freely with the voices of the city, the rustle of fruit trees and gusts of wind.
Hashtag Ensemble is celebrating its tenth anniversary of artistic activity, and to mark the occasion it presents the musicians of the cooperative in solo works. The Hashtag members, who for years have been performing in various chamber line-ups, present in this anniversary year their individual musical interests and prepare works that reflect their own sensibility. In the concert Obroty i Zaklęcia we will hear flute, violin, accordion, cello and viola. Thanks to the rooftop location of the concert, we hope these will not be micro-solo recitals but rather a kind of site-specific chamber music, in which the instrumental parts will dialogue with the sounds of the city.
If we were to name the composers whose works are closest to Hashtag Ensemble, Salvatore Sciarrino and Kaija Saariaho would certainly be among them. We had the pleasure of preparing Sciarrino’s opera Aspern in audio-video form during the pandemic, and subsequently staging it at Teatr Studio in collaboration with the Warszawska Jesień festival. Sciarrino’s musical painting, although it can give the listener the impression of naturally built, delicate textures (often so ephemeral as to be barely audible), in fact demands great virtuosity, concentration and tonal imagination. Kaija Saariaho has also been present in our repertoire before — among others in the BEZCZAS project for the Muzyka Wiary Muzyka Pokoju festival. Her deeply moving Cendres was heard on that occasion alongside works by George Crumb and Morton Feldman. The outstanding Finnish composer, who in 2019 was named by the BBC as the greatest living composer, spoke of her dreamlike works as follows: “I treat the dream as a gateway to hidden beings — for instance death and love — fundamental things we know nothing about.”
How might a contemporary serenade sound on a long June evening? Will summer rooftop concerts become a permanent feature of Hashtag Lab’s programme? Find out with us.
Programme:
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
Performers:
Ania Karpowicz flute Marta Piórkowska violin Paweł Janas accordion Dominik Płociński cello Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska viola
Production:
Ania Karpowicz programme concept and text
Karol Tomoki Yamazaki visual identity
Wojciech Błażejczyk, Kosma Standera sound engineering
Marta Piórkowska production
Przestrzeń Muzyki Współczesnej Hashtag Lab is co-financed by the Capital City of Warsaw.
Co-financed from the funds of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund within the “Music” programme, implemented by the Narodowy Instytut Muzyki i Tańca.
Przestrzeń Muzyki Współczesnej Hashtag Lab is co-financed by the Capital City of Warsaw.
Partners: POLMIC.