Sarband, Modern String Quartet, Judith Haug, Vladimir Ivanoff

Sarband: 
Fadia el-Hage, contralt | Mohammed Ali A. Hashim, violí | Vladimir Ivanoff, percussions | Till Martin, saxophones | Angelika Moths, harpsichord, organ, qanun | Furat Qadduori, qanun | Adnan Schanan, nay | Hugo Siegmeth, saxophones, bass clarinet |

Modern String Quartet | Judith Haug, projections | Vladimir Ivanoff, idea, arrangements and direction

PROGRAMME

Arab passion according to Johann Sebastian Bach

Only two of the four Passions composed by J.S. Bach, the St. Matthew and the St. John, have survived to the present day. Over the years, they have become two of the most emblematic works in Western music, and also a paradigm of introspection into a question of universal relevance – the irrational nature of pain and death. In their Arabian Passion after J.S. Bach, Sarband juxtaposes Bach's message with the desperate situation that exists today in the country that saw the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, and by extension brings in the conflict between the Western World and Islam. Sarband's director, Vladimir Ivanoff, will show us how the musical traditions of the West and Near East can come together in a new area of convergence which combines Western jazz with the spontaneity of Arabian classical music. Forming a structural backbone for the concert is musical material from a selection of the choral numbers and arias from the two Bach Passions.