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Written in Folk Roots issue 120, 1993

ANSAMBLUL "CUNUNA CARPATILOR"
Ansamblul Cununa Carpatilor
Syncoop 5752 CD 141 (1992)

ANSAMBLUL "DATINA" DIN FILIPESTII DE PADURE
Ansamblul Datina din Filipestii de Padure
Syncoop 5752 CD 145 (1992)

Releases of Balkan music on eastern European state record labels used to be tantalisingly short on information about the performers; usually, at most, the name of the the ensemble's conductor or arranger and the soloist were given on the sleeve. Foreign tours by groups and ensembles, particularly from Bulgaria and Hungary, have diminished some of that "Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares" anonymity - after being unable to find out whether she was still singing, or even still alive, I remember being considerably moved to see the singer of A Lamb has Begun Bleating, Nadka Karadjova, actually singing on stage in London, and at a Trio Bulgarka performance suddenly realising that the kaval-player whose hand I was shaking was the great Stoyan Velichkov.
      Therefore it's a pity there's not more information about the real human beings involved in these two CD releases, on a Dutch label, of fine Romanian ensembles recently recorded in a Rotterdam studio. One lists the names of the ensemble members; the other just names the soloists. Both CD booklets contain virtually the same useful description of Romanian folk music by Radboud Koop, in Dutch, English which could have done with a first-language English proof-reader, and German; the only photo, on the booklet's front, is of the "colourful folkloric" school, showing neither instruments nor performers.
      The music in both cases is a mixture of dance tunes, (including the three largest categories - hora, brîul and sîrba) and the lyrical slow doine, cîntece or balade. Ansamblul "Datina", led by Felicia Croituru, features a singer, Maria Tanasa-Marin, on 6 of its CD's 18 tracks, and includes accordeon and occasionally jews-harp in its line-up; the leader of Ansamblul "Cununa Carpilator", Gheorghe Popa, plays, among other things, taragot, bagpipe and fipple flute, and the group includes soprano saxophonist Mihai Duminica. Apart from that the two ensembles have largely similar instrumental combinations, with kaval, violins, pan-pipes, cimbalom, clarinet and bass.
      Though this could be seen as "standard" Romanian ensemble music, that means that it's swirling, exciting and emotive, and made by real human beings; it's a pity that, through lack of contact and information, such great music has the image of coming from some kind of east European music machine; imagine what, say, Irish music would seem like if its performers remained faceless.


© 1993 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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