The NOSTALGIA FESTIVAL
Poznań, 15-19.10.2007 is over

The first edition of the Festival [six concerts in Aula Nova and the Dominican Fathers' Chruch] featured:

→ The French pianist François Couturier [with Anja Lechner, cello; Jean-Marc Larché, soprano saxophone and Jean-Louis Matinier, accordion] in Nostalghia - Song for Tarkovsky, a magnificent project dedicated to the Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky;

→ The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir conducted by Tőnu Kaljuste, who, in the beautiful interior of the Dominican Fathers' Church, performed two of the most important pieces of "the new spirituality" in contemporary music, i.e. Alfred Schnittke's Psalms of Repentance and Arvo Pärt's Kanon Pokajanen [the lyrics of which the audience could read, translated by Zbigniew Dmitroca, on a screen during the concert];

→ Anja Lechner, cello, and Vassilis Tsabropoulos, piano, who performed breathtaking improvisations of the themes and dances left to us by Georges Gurdjieff;

→ Tigran Mansurian, piano and vocals; Kim Kashkashian, viola, and Robyn Schulkowsky, drums, in their first ever [since recording a record several years ago] live performance of songs by Komitas, Armenia's most brilliant songwriter and ethnologist;

→ Eleni Karaindrou [one of the most outstanding modern film music composers who works with the Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos], piano, with the Symphonic Orchestra and the Chamber Choir of the Poznań Academy of Music conducted by Marcin Sompoliński, who performed a suite of Eleni Karaindrou's music.

The Festival audience also enjoyed the review of Theo Angelopoulos' films [The Weeping Meadow, Eternity and a Day and Ulysses' Gaze] and Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalgia [shown on the second day of the Festival] at the Muza Cinema.

The Festival was accompanied by some exciting discussions with the stars in the Chamber Music Hall of the Academy of Music: Tõnu Kaljuste and members of the Estonian choir [About Contemporary Chorality]; Anja Lechner, Vassilis Tsabropoulos and Małgorzata Dziewulska [About Gurdjieff]; Tigran Mansurian, Kim Kashkashian, Robyn Schulkowsky and Andrzej Chłopecki [About Komitas] and Eleni Karaindrou [About Angelopoulos].

A 150-page programme book was published for the NOSTALGIA FESTIVAL. Apart from information about the artists and the music featured in the Festival, this included essays by Zofia Król [about Tarkovsky's Nostalgia], Anita Piotrowska [about the films of Angelopoulos], Andrzej Chłopecki and Dariusz Czaja [about the music of nostalgia], and Michał Paweł Markowski [about the concept of melancholy] as well as excerpts from Bruno Schulz, Bolesław Leśmian, Andrzej Stasiuk...

The NOSTALGIA FESTIVAL is over.

We will meet again in two years time. We are already feeling nostalgic...