Shajarian and Shahnaz Ensemble play in Munich Residence

On Friday we went with Omid to the concert by Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, who was accompanied on his tour through 9 european countries by the Shahnaz ensemble. The prospect to hear and watch in Munich the perhaps biggest and most famous representative of classical persian vocal music attracted a big audience that filled the Hercules-Hall of the royal residence up to the last seat. Five concerts of the european tour that the maestro together with the young musicians of Shahnaz ensemble performed in Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, Austria and Sweden were given in Germany, and rumour has it that the concert halls were always as packed as in Munich. Grand Maestro Mohammad-Reza Shajarian is Iran"s most prolific and popular classical vocalist who is generally regarded as a living legend of Persian music. In his remarkable performance of classical Persian music he was accompanied by the unique 17 member Shahnaz Ensemble directed by Majid Derakshani, one of Iran's most dynamic and innovative composer and instrumentalist. In addition to traditional instruments such as Setar, Daf, Tanbak, Tondar and Oudh, the young musicians of Shahnaz also played the Saghar, the Saboo or the Kereshmeh, instruments that have some similarities to a lute but were completely new designed and constructed by Shajarian himself. The background of the highly professional and inspiring young members of the Shahnaz ensemble was described by Shajarian: "the lack of a large Persian musical instrument ensemble with new colours and textures performing new polyphonic arrangements on the one hand and the ever increasing number of extremely talented young music graduates who needed to be absorbed in classical Persian music ensembles on the other, were the main incentives for the formation of the Shahnaz Ensemble in 2007. The ensemble was named Shahnaz (persian for prince) as a tribute to Jalil Shahnaz, the grand maestro of Persian music and his everlasting arts. After three hours performing Songs composed for classical persian poetry by Hafiz, Saadi, Sayeh and Mowlana, the audience greeted with standing ovations the new hymn of a free Iran "Morghe Sahar". I hope, Ghazal, you will have the chance to listen to his music when Shajarian and Shahnaz play next week in Stockholm. The last concerts of this remarkable european tour will be given in Sweden (27th and 29th of October in Goteborg and Stockholm) and in Cologne/Germany (30th of October), respectively.

Lars von Trier hides anti-semitic message in his movie

Dear Michael, Have you seen "Melancholia" meanwhile ? I liked your montage of the planet above the Munich sky-line. But always if I think back to my year in your city, I remember very happy moments and a nice summer with the mountains on the horizon and green parks with fresh air and the Isar-wave surfer, the concerts we went together and the river-side we had the bone-fire. Melancholia and Munich don"t really belong to each other.

Do you know what is really weird ?   When I looked closer to the image of the planet Melancholia, I got the feeling that Lars von Trier put a hidden message into the whole story. Am I lunatic ? Or do you also see what I see - that the fuzzy shape of the clouds on Melancholia resemble a Magen David ?

Now if we recall that Melancholia at the end just swallows the earth, in a very calm, almost aesthetic, yet destructive process, what might be the secret message than ? I would not be surprised if von Trier tries to express the old stereotype of the jewish omnipower taking over the whole world. Don"t know what is his problem ? The best movies were all by jewish directors. They made cinematografie the most relevant type of creative and expressive arts of modern times. What is his issue with this hypothetical jewish conspiracy ? Funny, isn"t it. Enjoy the evening, Be happy /ghazal --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ghazal Dear, Are you serious ? You have a very vivid phantasy, girl. I have not seen von Triers movie yet, but now that you claim there is even a hidden message behind the nice special effects, I definitely will go. Yes I red that he recently made some stupid remarks, about his sympathy for nazis (who were responsible not only for the biggest crime in history, but for the most dumb and primitive movies ever). But later, didn"t von Trier suddenly claimed that he might be Jew himself ? O boy, he is flamboyant guy. Doing good movies, but absolut crazy ideas about the society. Take Care, (You obviously enjoy disecting the obvious) Michael ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi Michael, I asked my brother A. if he could manage to convert the original L.v.Trier Melancholia planet in a video sequence that demonstrates how the hidden Magen David emanates from it. Look he did a good job. I think he liked it. Enjoy it, but be careful of all the conspiration theories. /ghazal