Part I

31/03 Saturday
VIDIN (Bulgaria) FOLK/JAZZ
Rodhopes’pagan music -Zourna and Drums
St-Lazarus’ dances and rituals
CONCERTS
Bojidar Simeonov - bagpipe
Theodosi Spasov TRIO – Ethno-jazz and folk music

01/04 Sunday
ORSOVA (Romania) GYPSY CONCERTS
CONCERTS
ROMANIAN GYPSY BAND 90 min+break 20 min
SESSION
Theodosi Spasov TRIO,  and GYPSY BAND
 
02/04 Monday
NOVI SAD (Serbia) CONTEMPORARY CONCERTS
In Novi Sad’s Synagogue
Boris Kovac & La Campanella Orchestra (including the string quartet TAJJ)
A Sentimental Journey into the World after History - 90 min
SESSION
Musical dialogs between Bulgarian, Romanian and Serbian musicians
 
03/04 Tuesday
MOHACH (Hungaria) FOLK/CREATIVE CONCERTS
BALKANTO VERO with Ivica Vucelja - Balkan music
SERBOPLOV and Bogdan Rankovich - Music from Serbia and the Austrian Empire
SESSION
Vince Olah+Ivica Vucelja+Bogdan Rankovich
 
04/04 Wednesday
BUDAPEST (Hungaria) VOCAL/FOLK CONCERTS
LANTOS & HORVATH DUO - 50 min
VIRTUOSI /MATYO DOBREV, VASIL MITEV,MLADEN MALAKOV,ALEXANDER KASIANOV
SESSION
Hungarian and Serbian musicians

05/04 Thursday - 10:00 AM
END of the 1st part

Part II
 
05/04 Thursday 15:00 PM
BEGINNING of the 2nd part
 
05/04 Thursday
BUDAPEST (Hungary) VOCAL/GYPSY CONCERTS
APAP DUO - 40 min
ROMENGO GYPSY BAND - Hungarian gypsy music – 80 min + break
SESSION
Romengo +David Yengebaryan+ Kalman Balogh +Gilles Apap + East Wings – Improvisation on Gypsy’s themes
 
06/04 Friday
BRATISLAVA (Slovakia) JAZZ/GYPSY/FOLK CONCERTS
KALMAN BALOGH & PETER RALCHEV & ATESHGHAN YUSEINOV & CSABA NOVAK
LAUREAT BELGE
SESSION
Horvath + Balogh + Ralchev + Yengebaryan + Otto Lechner + East Wings
 
07.04 Saturday
VIENNA (Austria) JAZZ/CREATIVE CONCERTS
OTTO LECHNER + ANATOLY VAPIROV + STOYAN YANKOULOV
BLACK SEA TRIO - 30 min
IZMAILOV - VAPIROV - HORVATH
SESSION
Yankoulov + Yuseinov + Vapirov + Lechner + Horvat + East Wings, EVA QUARTET, Midnight Easter songs
 
08/04 Sunday
Church of KREMS (Austria) VOCAL/CONTEMPORARY
EASTER CONCERT – 11.00h - In the Klangraum Minorite Church
EVA QUARTET - Bulgarian Voices + GILLES APAP + LANTOS – 70 min

DURNSTEIN (Austria) CONTEMPORARY/GYPSY CONCERTS
GILLES APAP DUO,
STOYAN YANKULOV& ELITZA TODOROVA
SESSION
Gilles Apap, Lantos, Horvat,Yankulov, Enver Izmailov
 
09/04 Monday
PASSAU (Germany) WEDDING MUSIC CONCERTS
ZIG ZAG TRIO feat. IVO PAPASOV
The best players of Bulgarian wedding and gypsy music
ENVER IZMAILOV
BIG FINAL SESSION
 
10/04 Tuesday, 09.00h,
PASSAU
END

• “Etude for six accordions. The accordion art – tradition and innovation” – Otto Lechner, Peter Raltchev, Ivica Vucelja, David Yengibarjan, Emmanuel Comte, Alexander Kassiyanov










• “A music trip from India to Europe” – Zoltan Latos and Gilles Apap










• “The wedding orchestras” – Ivo Papazov , The Virtuosi and Zig Zag Trio









• “Specificity of the Gypsy singing” – Romengo












• “Pain and joy in the music of the Balkans” – Bogdan Rankovitch, Vince Olah, Ivica Vucelja









• “Instrumental improvisations” – Enver Izmailov, Kornel Horvath, Peter Raltchev

THE MUSICAL VOYAGE AGAINST THE STREAM OF THE DANUBE RIVER

Professor Dr. Dimitrina Kauffman

A deep and original idea of Zlatina Russeva brought together about fifty musicians from the countries situated on the both sides of the river Danube in order to make an attempt – jointly with their music and the music of their neighbors – to sail across, against the stream of the river, the distance between one world and another – from the world of the former closed socialist countries to enter the world of the western countries, called European Union, who live without borders and communicate freely for a long time. Not in the political but just in the cultural meaning.
Thus the ship “Sofia” was turned for ten days into an experimental laboratory, where cultural events were about to take place under pressure. Between some peoples these events haven’t occurred for centuries and between others have been disconnected for a period of more or less than a century.
It was expected that a composition and interpretational synthesis would be reached through a mutual diffusion of the musical ideas and the styles of interpretation, the performers to enrich themselves with new ideas for creative work and performance.
Almost all the present popular and classical musicians who had a serious interest in folklore generally, and in the Danube river folklore were born on either side of the big river. There were performers from far away countries and jazzmen with serious interest in the Danube folklore.
Some of the performers knew each other for a log time, they were working on joint projects and for them the gathering on the ship was a continuation of their old musical co-operation. They had already made the first steps towards the exploration of the music language of their partners: Ivo Papazov (Buylgaria) – Enver Izmailov (Ukraine), Peter Raltchev (Bulgaria) – Otto Lechner (Austria), Enver Izmailov – Kornel Horvath (Hungary), Zoltan Lantos (Hungary) and Kornel Horvath – Stoyan Yankulov (Bulgaria)…
An impressive result from these relations was the perfect music expose on Bulgarian folklore material which was created by the two virtuosi of the accordion – Peter Raltchev and the blind Otto Lechner a day before their concert. Otto Lechner showed total mastery of the Bulgarian music composition abundant in elaborate asymmetrical meters. He learned perfectly this composition only by ear for a few hours before his appearance together with Raltchev.
Naturally the biggest achievement of the festival was the graduate experience and ideas gaining, and especially important – the accumulation of emotional tension in anticipation of Ivo Papazov – the worldwide unattainable master of the clarinet. Papazov’ s depth of music thought, the out-of-reach beauty of his tone, the logic of his form, the ornamentation, the dramatic effect which he suggests – all this has turned Ivo Papazaov into a god of music a long time ago. His participation which marked the end of the festival rearranged the functions of the players as on a checkmate desk. The giant music statue of Ivo Papazov raised up like the cathedral of Cologne despite the brilliant performance and improvisation qualities of his partners.
Actually we didn’t reach Europe, but Europe traveling against the musical stream came and set its foot in Bulgaria thanks to our great folklore musicians who managed to convince their counterparts from the neighboring and far away countries to search for bridges to our culture. And it happened.
The Danube festival was an unearthly and unreal fairy-tail that we dreamed in reality. After two concerts per evening, followed by jam sessions, which sometimes continue till the morning, your mind is bursting with the music experienced – you cannot sleep, don’t believe that you are there and that all this is real…
Thank for the exceptional delight and good luck in the next issue of the event!