Jazz in Motion, Romantics’ War at upcoming chamber music festival SoNoRo in Bucharest

Concerts featuring a program of cinematic jazz works and varied Romantic creations are part of the upcoming edition of chamber music festival SoNoRo, which starts in Bucharest on October 30.

Colors: Jazz in Motion, a show featuring Ksenia Parkhatskaya, David Duffy, and their band, is scheduled for October 31 at Bragadiru Palace. The program combines original cinematic jazz composed by David Duffy, with lyrics by Ksenia, and jazz and swing standards from the genre’s golden age.

Dancer, choreographer, singer, and actress Ksenia Parkhatskaya has performed and taught in more than 35 countries, appearing alongside the Christian McBride Trio, Postmodern Jukebox, the Paris Opera Orchestra, and the Barcelona Jazz Orchestra. Born in Leningrad, she began dancing at the age of six. She studied philosophy in St. Petersburg, has lived in Berlin, Stockholm, and Cork, and is now based in Barcelona. Since 2016, she has composed original music with her husband, Irish composer David Duffy. Her single “How Long” has surpassed 1.5 million streams on Spotify, while their album Colours has been released on vinyl by Japan’s Terashima Records.

The band includes Ksenia Parkhatskaya on vocals and dance, David Duffy on double bass, Marc Martin on piano, Gabriel Amargant on saxophone and clarinet, Jordi Pallares on percussion, and Keelan Kenny on guitar.

This year’s edition of SoNoRo draws inspiration from Richard Wagner’s artistic universe and the concept of endless melody, a musical idea in which a phrase does not come to a definitive close but continues to flow, evolve, and create a sense of continuity.  The festival program takes audiences on a journey through Romanticism, modernism, and contemporary composition, bringing together works by Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Liszt, Mahler, Strauss, Schoenberg, Brahms, Schubert, Enescu, and others, with each concert part of “a musical thread connecting cities, heritage venues, international artists, and communities of listeners.”

In keeping with this, the concert The Romantics’ War will highlight two musical visions that stood in opposition: those of Brahms and Wagner, each convinced that the other was taking music in the wrong direction. Brahms regarded Wagner’s radical Romanticism as shapeless, excessive, and endlessly long, while Wagner considered Brahms too restrained, too pedantic, and too bound by the constraints of musical form, the festival organizers explain.

The concert, set for November 4, will feature works by Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Alexander Scriabin, and Johannes Brahms, performed by violinists Boris Brovtsyn and Aylen Pritchin, violist Sarah McElravy, cellist Valentin Răduțiu, and pianists Diana Ketler, Louis Lortie, and Eldar Nebolsin.