Altstadtkonzert with Spark - the Classical Ensemble - Bohemian Spirit: Freedom, Fantasy and Fiery Sparks

The ECHO-Klassik award-winning ensemble Spark takes its audience into the glittering world of Bohemia, the home of artists, idealists and individualists, free spirits and visionaries. Everything is possible; imagination knows no bounds. The cradle of Bohemia is the vibrant Latin Quarter in early 19th-century Paris. That is precisely where Spark's journey begins. The quintet throws itself into the hustle and bustle of this colourful melting pot and seeks out the spirit of awakening that must have hung in the air at that time. Exciting sounds, new forms of expression, fascination with the supernatural and the fantastic. The dance of the devil and waltzing bliss. Grand Opéra and street songs. Military march and rhapsodies - captured on Spark's unusual instrumentarium of around thirty recorders, melodica, violin, viola, cello and piano. Above all, the whole thing lives from unbridled joy of playing and breathtaking virtuosity, which for nearly twenty years has made the group's unique charm. Spark's Bohemia is intoxicatingly sensual and full of surprises. A stage composition by Léo Delibes awakens memories of early music. Puccini's opera La Bohème meets Charles Aznavour's song of the same name. Bizet's Carmen, who in her pursuit of freedom and unbridled passion embodies a Bohemian through and through, is staged in a completely new Carmen fantasy. Rarely heard works can be discovered through compositions by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Ernest Krähmer and Pauline Viardot. Finally, the group links the masterworks of yesterday with the sounds of today, as the music of 1830s Paris increasingly transforms into Spark's own Bohemia. There you can hear traditional Roma melodies in a fiery suite by Adam Ilyas Kuruc, original compositions by Spark members, and new commissioned works by Sebastian Bartmann and Elena Kats-Chernin. Bohemian Spirit is Spark's declaration of love for freedom and