Songs from Beyond
Concert – Mystery
September 15 at 20:00 at Polli Talu in Rame küla
September 19 at 18:30 at Jaani Church in Haapsalu
An evening of compositions
by Mieczysław Eligiusz Litwiński
to mystical poetry of the East and the West
by the duo
Sol et Luna
Saba Zuzanna Krasoczko (voice, harmonium, daf)
Mieczysław Eligiusz Litwiński (voice, harmonium, violin, viola, tar, setar, zither)
„Songs from Beyond” is an evening of songs composed by Mieczysław Eligiusz Litwiński to mystical poetry of the East and the West. In the program: compositions to the words of Apollonios from Tyana, Jalaluddin Rumi, Angelus Silesius, Novalis, Adam Mickiewicz, Konstantin Balmont as well as hymns and charms from the Papyrus of Nurse Kai – one of the versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead – on display in the National Museum in Warsaw. Those songs are sung in Polish, German, Lithuanian, Russian, Persian and Old Greek.
The program is characterized by a large historical span; it is multi faceted, multi-lingual and multi-cultural. The pieces are most often set to original texts, and their linking motif is their calling at the broadly understood religious sphere, connecting man with the supernatural world. There are chants, prayers and hymns from several religious universes: Christianity, Pythagoreism, Islam and Old Egyptian faith, and all that is permeated by the spirit of mysticism.
Press quotes
„Otherworldly and extraordinary” (The Warsaw Voice), „Virtuoso vocal range” (The New York Times), „True musical spells” (Gazeta Wyborcza), „Musical alchemy and magic” (Urbane Aboriginale, Berlin) – these are but some of the voices of the critics, who emphasise the unusual fusion or blending of the artists’ voices. It is a “conjunction of the opposites” of its own, special kind: voices of the man and the woman complement each other, creating a fascinating impression of one “otherworldly” voice of incredible fullness and power of expression. Their use of the voice is also quite unusual: they perform many an unexpected trick combining classical singing with vocal styles from Persia, India, Byzantium, together with extended vocal techniques and some vocal acrobatics of their own. Noteworthy is also their power of improvisation. Their inspired art has been heard in Germany, Italy (on the Roman Foro Traiano), in Spain, Switzerland, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland as well as in Iran. The music they perform goes beyond all categories. „His (Litwiński’s) … is a kind of timeless music, music that belongs to no century, or to all centuries” (John Schaefer, „New Sounds”, New York Public Radio). „In Litwinski’s music, one can sense a patina of the ancient, without, however, it being bound to any historical period. It is marked with timeless archaicness, drawing from mystical sources of many different cultures” (Matthias Osterwald, Urbane Aboriginale Festival VII, Berlin).
