Alfred Bösendorfer

Roumanian Christmas

The composer Alfred Bösendorfer has always been particularly interested in different countries and their very own culture and music. With this composition, the self-confessed cosmopolitan takes us into the darkly mysterious yet radiantly glittering world of Romanian Christmas. Our musical excursion begins with a winter hike through the fascinating nature of the Carpathians, a paradise of snow-covered mountains, frozen fields and frozen lakes. The large-scale, majestic theme shows us the infinite vastness of the landscape. The biting cold calls for warm thoughts. The sound creator cannot help but conjure up a traditional Romanian folk dance in our mind's eye, in which a cimbalom (alternatively xylophone or marimba) can be used as a special "local" timbre. The typically composed time signature, which is characterized by constant changes, gives us an excellent impression of the immense energy and joie de vivre of this very festive people, who also celebrate Christmas as the highest festival of the year in a special way. One local custom, for example, is for (young) children to go from house to house on Christmas Eve to sing Christmas carols. The composer apparently also had a child's voice in mind when he orchestrated the Christmas carol "Sus, la poarta Raiului" ("Up at the Gate to Paradise"), which begins in bar 111, in a very unusual and effective way: he gave the piccolo its own, angelic second voice. A lavishly decorated Christmas tree is also part of every Romanian Christmas celebration. However, the composer was evidently not only able to see the tree when looking (without permission) through the keyhole, but also the person responsible for the gifts and presents in Romania: "Moş, Crãciun", the Romanian Santa Claus, the composer is certain, has performed a real Santa Claus dance. This begins leisurely and playfully in bar 141, but gains more and more weight as the instrumentation increases. Whether this is connected to the lavishly laid festive table remains uncertain. What is certain, however, is that Bösendorfer wanted to counter this somewhat ponderous dance with the typical Romanian folk dance of the beginning - as an expression of thanks. The return journey through the crystalline Carpathian Mountains is the last stop on our little musical tour, which ends with a radiant major chord - in keeping with the joy of the birth of Christ.