The flutist Natalie Schwaabe gave the impetus for the first family concert of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) and the International Youth Library (IJB) in the new year: “She had the idea of taking up the topic of wind. Musicians can play it in many ways on their wind instruments produce – and it can be wonderfully combined with suitable poems,” says Andrea Wössner from the IJB.
She oversees the project in which twice a year musicians from the BRSO, together with literature experts from the IJB, bring stories to life in words and music for children of primary and preschool age. On Sunday, February 19th, the musical-literary matinée “NotenTexte. “Der Wind, der Wind…” is blowing up at Blutenburg Castle.
The wind phenomenon is not only musically diverse, sometimes whispering softly, sometimes roaring loudly, sometimes whistling angrily, sometimes gently blowing. He can also strike all kinds of literary tones, as evidenced by the wind poems that the IJB team selected from children’s calendars from previous years. “They are recited by bilingual children, so we can hear the poems in Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, English, Spanish, French and their German translation,” Wössner explains.
The individual lectures are linked by a small dramaturgy in which the wind forces build up, from a gentle draft to a thunderstorm. In between there is enough space for hands-on activities, assures Wössner. your favorite poem? “Personally, I particularly like the poem by Australian poet Lydia Pender”. In “Hills” she describes the feeling of standing on top of a hill, leaning against the wind and then running down. “Your arms are outspread, / There’s a wind round your hat! / Your heart’s going thump, / And your throat’s just a lump, / Hurrah! You are down on the flat!”. (“Stretch your arms quickly, / The wind whistles around your head, / Your cap has surely disappeared! / Your heart is beating like crazy, / Your throat is choking, / Hooray! You’re back down safely!”).
“The wind, the wind…”, from 5 years, Sunday, February 19, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Jella-Lepman-Saal at Blutenburg Castle, www.ijb.de