RUSSIAN, KLEZMER & GISPY MUSIC

In 2015, the friendship binding the Sirba Octet to the Orchestre de Pau /Pays de Béarn led them to create a new program : Sirba Orchestra !, at the heart of Russian, Romanian and Moldovan melodies and Ashkenazi traditions.

Sirba Octet invited one balalaikiste and its magical instrument from Russia, to sublime a few numbers. A borderless path with multiples tones, festive, melancholic or passionate. Songs and poems orchestrated for unpublished versions that use all the musical and expressive resources of the symphony orchestra. A Russian cabaret which celebrates love songs – Otchi Tchornye (Dark Eyes), Ja Vstretil vas (I met you) or Kalinka – and its indispensable romances such as Cocher ralentis tes chevaux or Katioucha – a young girl in love with a soldier gone on duty to defend his homeland…

Numerous life stories and emotions gathering around the central Yiddish orchestral piece Gayen zay in shvartze Reien, a ghetto song both illuminating and deeply moving. Drawn from the Jewish folk songs that made the Barry Sisters, Sirba Octet reinterprets Zug es Meir Noch Amool (Tell Me One More Time) and thus establishes a musical bridge in a Yiddish 50’s Jazz feel.

Gipsy Russian cabaret and Romanian or Moldovan traditional dances

The Sirba Octet, the orchestra and the balalaika answer to each other successively and naturally slide towards Gipsy Russian cabaret repertoire – notably with the famous song Valenki (Felt Boots), written by nomad gypsies – and Romanian or Moldovan traditional dances – Tata vine pastele (Daddy, Easter Is Coming !) and the Suite de Moldavie, a medley of Doinas, songs that originated amongst shepherds.

The Sirba Orchestra program! recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège directed by Christian Arming and Nicolas Kedroff at the balalaika was the subject of new orchestrations and a contribution of five unreleased tracks for this new album published by the Deutsche Grammophon label on May, 2018 , whose release was followed by a concert on Saturday, June 16, 2018 at the Musical Seine of Boulogne-Billancourt. Sirba Orchestra! is invited by many symphonic orchestras in France and abroad.

SIRBA ORCHESTRA! A MEETING WITH THE ORCHESTRAS IN FRANCE:

• Lille National Orchestra, conducting by Alexandre Bloch,
• Orchestra of Pau / Pays de Béarn, conducting by Fayçal Karoui,
• Orchestra of brittany, conducting by Rudolf Piehlmayer,
• Victor Hugo Franche-Comté Orchestra conducting by Jean-François Verdier,
• Cannes Orchestra, conducting by Benjamin Levy,
• The Philharmonic Orchestra of Hauts-de-France, conducting by Jean-Pierre Wiart,
• Aube Symphony Orchestra, conducting by Gilles Millière
• Orchestra Dijon Burgundy, conducting by Joseph Bastian…

AND ABROAD WITH :

• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, conducting by Christian Arming (Belgium and France),
• Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, conducting by Alexander Sladkosvsky at the Folle Journée Nantes & Tokyo,
• WDR Funkhausorchester, conducting by Enrico Delamboye, Germany
• Suisse Romande orchestra, conducting by Benjamin Levy, Switzerland
• Biel-Solothurn Symphony Orchestra, conducting by Kaspar Zehnder,
• Switzerland
• Luxembourg European Soloists, conducting by Christoph König, Luxembourg
• Olten Philharmonic Orchestra, conducting by Murat Cem Orhan, Turkey
• Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, conducting by Ariane Matiakh, Germany
• Gebirgsmusikkorps der Bundeswehr, conducting by Rudolf Piehlmayer, Germany…