Windsheimer Zeitung
2011-05-24

 Jacaranda present sounds that connect space and time

BAD WINDSHEIM - The Jacaranda Ensemble adopted the name of an African tree during an African tour. It doesn't tell you anything about what the audience can expect. The stage set-up with its many instruments is a little confusing. Even if you knew the names of the instruments, you still wouldn't really know where to start. At least the musicians are all members of the Brandenburg symphony orchestra, that's reassuring, but this has nothing to do with what the evening has in store either. Except once perhaps, but more about that later.

The first notes are struck, low notes, blown on two alphorns. A few birds cause a commotion as they leave their evening resting places and head for the trees surrounding Martin-Luther-Platz, then it's all eyes to the stage and the five musicians who, over the next two hours, will be presenting the audience with the highly unusual. They signify a musical journey through time and around the world. This description suits the concert very well, because music by Jacaranda cannot be pinned down by genre, era or style.

Alphorn, saxophone, drums

"Derwisch", the first piece of the evening, starts with long, calming alphorn sounds. The titles and instruments don't seem to match. The entry of the saxophone produces Eastern European sounds, the tempo builds up—powered by drums—until it is dancing wildly with the lurs. Lurs are wind instruments that date back to ancient times. Thus, the suspense the music produces is already evident: ancient Nordic wind instruments meet customary Swiss alphorns barely two centuries old and combine with the still comparatively youthful saxophone to create a musical uniformity of sound for which there is no comparison. The instruments therefore don't play the kind of music typically associated with them. As a result, entirely new acoustic colours emerge.

Irish roots

The musical themes seem to emanate the music of the people. Sometimes they do this intrinsically, for example, in the piece "Kangding Love Song", for which a Chinese folk song was arranged for the saxophone, horn, alphorn, percussion and marimba, or in "Karry Dance", which has Irish roots, and for which the pennywhistle is a perfect match, and, astoundingly, so is the alpine didgeridoo.

In "Solei du midi", the alphorns eventually play just as you envisage in the Swiss mountains; the vibraphone takes on the sound of the cow bells, but before it becomes too homely for the audience, the pennywhistle resounds out of an open window of a house in the square and mixes in with the music.

From Bach's Musical Offering

To come back to the beginning: In "Madrugada", the bassoon classically presents a theme from the "Musical Offering" of Johann Sebastian Bach, for which the didgeridoo lays the base. But in between, it couldn't be more of a surprise when the bugles, alphorns, castanets and kettledrums join in to give the music a whole new twist. In "Heartbeat" the ensemble gets virtually everything going that can be hit or that generates sound: drum rims, vibraphone frame, congas, maracas, temple blocks, crotales – it initially sounds like the ticking and tinkling of a clockmakers until the powerful rhythmic "heartbeat" of the congas can be heard.

None of the pieces played at this evening's event have the same instrumentation, so there is never a dull moment. The music is often powerfully rhythmic and accented by percussion. There are also quieter pieces, however, like the Song to the Moon "Canto della Luna", a love song softly played on the horn, surrounded by the sparkling tone sequences of the vibraphone and marimba moving up and down. The piece "Play with Fire" causes a real stir. It comes to a rousing finish with dynamic percussion and marimba played with real virtuosity.

Angklungs from Indonesia

But that's not quite it just yet. There's an encore for the excited audience. For this, the musicians break out the instruments that haven't been used yet. With the angklungs from Indonesia, simple instruments—more chattering than ringing—with a very different tuning enable the musicians to astound the audience again. It's just a shame that young listeners were barely represented at the evening's event.

Caption:Jacaranda laid on a concert of a slightly different kind at Martin-Luther-Platz on Saturday evening. The open air show was part one of the Windsheim Classic 2011 line-up.

Photo: Tim Hale