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'Romanian Folklore Treasures'

Various Artists

(EDC608)

 Musicians:
Orchestras led by:
Paraschiv Oprea (1, 4 - 6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19, 20, 28),
Dumitru Farcas (2),
George Sarbu (3),
Marius Olmazu (7, 26, 27),
Florian Economu (8, 21),
Gheorghe Zamfir (10, 23),
Radu Voinescu (13),
Radu Simion (14),
Vioret Leanca (17),
Damian Luca (18),
George Vancu (22),
Marcel Ghinea (24),
George Mitin-Variesescu (25)
and others

Label - Electrecord, Romania
Released 2006

From CD notes:
"Romania is a country with a large spiritual wealth of rare beauty and originality. Romanian folklore reflects the inexhaustible spring of these beauties. It is a true thesaurus of doinas (doina is an elegiac song typical of Romanian lyrical folk poetry and music), ballads, lullabies, love songs, wedding songs or drinking songs and lots of girdle dances of a great rhythmic and stylistic variety. Due to its complexity and richness, our folk music is among the first in the European music of the genre. The multitude of forms makes our folklore much richer than that of other European people.

The present CD is quite remarkable with its reference songs for the Romanian folk music and concert melodies from the repertoire of the famous! Grigoras Dinicu, a repertoire much loved by the fans of the genre. The CD comprises a true thesaurus of songs collected from different parts of the country. Famous names in the Romanian folk music, great interpreters and remarkable 
instrument players gave life to these songs of our folklore: the late Ion Dragoi, Efta Botoca (fiddle), Toni lordache (cimbalom), the much beloved Damian Luca and Radu Simion with their charmed Pan flute, the unmistakable taragot (bass clarinet) players Dumitru Farcas and Luca Novac, the famous shepherd's flute pipe player Dumitru Zamfira, then Constantin Gherghina and Alexandru Havriliuc who played their trumpet in unbelievable new ways, the clarinet player George Udila, the unparalleled accordion player Marcel Budala and last but not least Marlin Cotoanta (kobsa), Marin Chisar (long shepherd's pipe), Nicolae Plesa (Jew's harp) and Gheorghe Rada (Stroh violin).

These musicians by trade are the fiddler players, playing an ancient instrument deriving from kobsa, now less often used. It was replaced mainly by the cembalo and the accordion. The fiddle is an instrument that was often modified in order to facilitate some peculiar sounds and sound effects, imitations or the effects meant to increase the expression possibilities of the accompaniment violin. In some regions in the western part of the country, the ordinary violin was replaced by the Stroh violin invented in 1899 by the Londoner lute manufacturer of German origin John Matthias Augustus Stroh and built by his son, Charles Stroh.

In the present album, we can listen to its somewhat 'nasal voice' in a girdle dance interpreted by Gheorghe Rada, Romanian peasant who became a musician [25]. It is worth mentioning that not all fiddler players are gypsies. Beside Gheorghe Rada, Efta Botoca [5] is also of Romanian nationality as are Dumitru Farcas [2], Dumitru Zamfira [4,16], Alexandru Havriliuc [17], Constantin Gherghina [22] and Nicolae Plesa [26].

The taragot was the reconstructed and improved version of the ancient oboe or clarinet, built at the end of the last century by V.J. Schunda in Budapest. Taragot 
was extremely popular in Banat, the province in the south-eastern part of Romania. One of the many talented taragot players is Luca Novac whom we can listen to in song [11] "Doiul Furtuna". Taragot became gradually replaced by the saxophone which was played in a folk manner.

Radu Simion [14] and Damian Luca [18] play Pan's flute which is quite well known around the world but which was taken to impressive artistic heights by the Romanian fiddler players.

Alexandru Havriliuc [17] and Constantin Gherghina [22] play the trumpet, an instrument widely spread across the country where little gypsy brass bands can be seen and heard playing many brass and wind instruments.

In the second half of the century, many instrument players began playing within little folk music orchestras. Among these, especially talented are Dumitru Zamfira, playing the shepherd's flute pipe in [4] and bagpipe [16]. Very talented as well is Nicolae Plesa playing the Jew's harp in [26] and also a good violin manufacturer.

Cimbalom is by excellence an accompaniment instrument. But quite often it is used by the folk artists as a virtuoso instrument, see Toni lordache, a Bucharest gypsy musician who died very young as one of the most famous and talented cembalo players.

The music we offer with this CD, is full of the beauty and vitality of old music. Its priceless value and the impeccable interpretation make me feel right in stating we are in front of an exceptional disc."

USD 14.99

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'Romanian Folklore Treasures'

Various Artists

(EDC608)

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