Chinese Lanterns Festival. Oriental concerts in the Chinese Garden
In the second part of the Chinese Lanterns Festival you are invited to the Chinese Garden for concerts of oriental music. Every Sunday until 28 August, outstanding artists will play traditional musical instruments. The Buyo Japanese dance and tales about the Far East culture are not to be missed either.
A series of concerts in the Chinese Garden will reveal the rich variety of music of the Orient - from China through Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, India to even Turkey from the times of the Ottoman Empire. - Let this year’s meeting with this kind of music be a journey to the furthest ends of the earth for the guests of the Royal Łazienki, only that it would be a journey without visas, air tickets and tiring transfers. This one time, free as vagabonds, without luggage and money, let’s go to see the world - this is how Anna Krysztofiak, artist of the Łódź Philharmonic, painter and artistic director of the Chinese Lanterns Festival, encourages you to take part in the event.
The inaugural concert was held on 31 July. The message it conveyed was the friendship of the East and the West, expressed in harmonious sounds of the Polish and Chinese music. The performance was given by Maria Pomianowska and her band, and the Chinese Garden was filled with sounds of oriental instruments. - The language of music crosses cultural boundaries; it is universal. It is one of the most important means of expression, because people have similar emotions and associations - says Anna Krysztofiak.
"POLAND AND CHINA – FOLK FRIENDSHIPS"
The second concert of the Chinese Lanterns Festival (7 August at 8 p.m.) will feature a subtle Japanese Buyo dance performed by a well known dancer - Hana Umeda. It will be enriched with songs played by Anna Krysztofiak on Japanese instruments, as well as a performance by Vlastislav Matoušek.
"THE MUSIC OF THE WIND, THE RUSTLING OF VELVET"
We also invite the visitors to the third concert of the Chinese Lanterns Festival (14 August at 8 p.m.), during which songs deriving from popular Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese music will be played. They are characterized by a free, improvised performance combining the genres of folk and entertainment music. Among others, we will hear songs by Teresa Teng - a star of Chinese pop music, as well as popular Indian musical themes played on the sitar and Indian bansuri flutes, with an electric arrangement.
"ASIAN TIGERS GO TO A DANCE PARTY"
The fourth concert of the Chinese Lanterns Festival (21 August at 8 p.m.) will be devoted to Polish and Turkish historical music. Paweł Iwaszkiewicz will perform with a band of Turkish Janissaries. Musicians will play on replicas of instruments from the times of the Battle of Vienna.
"JANISSARIES IN THE CHINESE GARDEN – CHINOISERIE IN POLISH"
During the last concert of the Chinese Lanterns Festival (28 August at 8 p.m.), the visitors to the Royal Łazienki will have a chance to listen to almost all types of zither played in Asia. They will include: the Vietnamese dan tranh, the Chinese guzheng and guqin, the Japanese koto, yakumogoto, ichigenkin and taishogoto, as well as a string zither - sangenkin. Clavichords will also sound during the concert. The Chinese view them as variants of the zither; they were brought to the Chinese court by European missionaries.
"STRIKING THE GENTLEST STRING. ALMOST ALL ZITHERS OF THE ORIENT"
International cooperation
The Royal Łazienki Museum has organised the Chinese Lanterns Festival since 2012. This is a part of the "Garden of Lights" international project designed to promote exceptional historic gardens and museums from across the world. Five residences cooperate within the project - apart from the Royal Łazienki Museum these are the Prince Pückler Park in Bad Muskau (Germany), Château de Lunéville (France), Tsarskoye Selo in Sankt Petersburg (Russia), Prince Kung’s Mansion in Beijing (China) and and Frederiksborg Slot in Hillerød (Denmark).
