Dancing Queen - ABBA & Jean-Philippe Rameau

You're in the mood for dance, and when you get the chance: You are a dancing queen!

Bridging these two absolute giants of European musical history seems audacious: Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) and ABBA! Yet on a second listen, countless parallels emerge. The originality and catchiness of their melodies, the rhythmic lightness, and both their unrestricted popularity. Under the title Dancing Queen, the lautten compagney ensemble builds a bridge from the present into an era when Kings rather than Queens ruled the dance floor. ABBA's music is reworked and performed on Baroque instruments, just as in other cross-era projects by the Berlin ensemble, and is not merely set against Rameau's music. The compositions are sometimes so interwoven that it becomes hard to tell what comes from the pen of the high-Baroque French composer and what from the workshop of the Swedish pop quartet.

Asya Fateyeva, a true dancing queen on her instrument, dances between worlds with exploratory curiosity. With supreme virtuosity, she draws rapid runs from her saxophone as easily as the finest lyrical arias. She commands an endless palette of different sounds and improvises with ease over a rock riff, whether by Rameau or ABBA. An ideal partner for the musicians of the experimental and playful lautten compagney ensemble, with whom she released the highly acclaimed album Time Travel in 2021, featuring works by Purcell and The Beatles.

Asya Fateyeva - saxophone
Bo Wiget - arrangements
lautten compagney Berlin
Birtgit Schnurpfeil - musical direction