Quartet Passo Avanti
"Bach certainly would have loved Passo Avanti"
(Bavarian public classical radio)
"These guys have developed their own musical language"
(Bayerisches Fernsehen – German public television)
"The quartet Passo Avanti renegotiates the musical parameters of existing pieces – this results in an exciting mixture of classical music and jazz"
(North German public radio)
Quartet Passo Avanti - Classical music, one step ahead
Julia Bassler/Doren Dinglinger – violin
Alexander von Hagke – clarinet, bass clarinet, flute and piccolo
Lucas Campara Diniz, guitars
Eugen Bazijan – cello
Since the founding in 2011, the ensemble Passo Avanti (Germany) has been drawing wider and wider circles. Their musical metamorphoses are humorous and brim with ideas. The joy of arranging and improvising is a key element, which immediately infects the listeners.
Passo Avanti offers a unique and refreshing mixture of classical music and jazz, flavoured with a number of other musical ingredients. By combining the intimacy of chamber music with elements of improvisation, classical music is simultaneously taken back to its roots and one step forward at the same time, producing smooth transitions with subtle hues and wide arches bridging musical styles.
One key ingredient is the novel instrumentation. Similar to that of a string quartet, it allows for playing in the classical idiom as well as swinging like a jazz band.
All the musicians have been trained in both classical and jazz styles, and the crossover process is deeply rooted inside every one of them. The result is charming, original and humorous. It innovates but pays respectful homage to the old masters. Refined arrangements are subtly punctuated by mature improvisations, combining virtuosity with seeming effortlessness and wit.
Importantly, besides interpreting various classical and jazz composers, Passo Avanti puts a strong emphasis on educational work by giving special concerts that teach children and teenagers new ways of looking at classical music.
The tour plan of Passo Avanti is continuously growing, covering festivals and concerts throughout Germany and beyond. For example, the concerts in 2016 included Tonhalle Zürich, the renowned Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and a tour through South-East Asia.
Furthermore, until now the exciting quartet Passo Avanti has released two (2) albums. The first one, Delikatessen (GLM, 2013), was received with great enthusiasm. The second album, Finest Blend, which reflects the splendor of the ensemble and its interpretations – the pieces, musical styles and musicians themselves – is the finest blend, indeed.
A Selection of Programmes
On Searching and Finding: Encounters with Mozart
How would Mozart compose nowadays?
There hardly ever was a more curious and interested composer than Mozart, who soaked up and processed so many musical
influences of his time. Mozart's diverse compositions offer Passo Avanti a large playground for variations and transformations.
The ensemble demonstrates his multifaceted music with its own creative approach.
One emphasis of the program is art songs, with which Mozart anticipated the creation of the romantic lieder.
Selected pieces e.g.
• The Song of Parting
• Gigue in G Major
• Evening Feelings of Laura
• Ouverture for le Nozze di Figaro
• On Searching and Finding
• Fantasy in D minor
plus further compositions by
Mozart and originals
From Renaissance to Modernity: From Mille Regretz up to Der Seeteufel
The ensemble leads us with its distinctive own musical language all the way from the beginnings of vocal polyphony through the baroque, classical and romantic eras into the present. The ingenious originals get re-composed and presented in a new light with much attention to detail.
Starting with the mysticism of Josquin Desprez and Luther's famous choral „Ein feste Burg“, the exciting versions by Passo Avanti
tell a tantalizing tale. Fascinating works from all periods in Passo Avanti's sublime variations make up colourful mosaic of a llarge, coherent picture.
Selected pieces e.g.
• Mille Regretz (Desprez)
• Ein feste Burg (Luther)
• Lascia ch‘io pianga (Haendel)
• Pavane (Ravel)
• Der Seeteufel (v.Hagke)
plus further compositions by selected composers and originals
Baroque music. And Opera. And
Improvisation
Developed in cooperation with SWR Classic Clash.
Passo Avanti contrasts the epoch of the baroque masters, whose great works still radiate an enormous strength, with the
glamorous world of the opera. What is the common ground of these two different universes? There are the unforgotten
melodies to begin with, which come into their own also in Passo Avanti's versions. Then there is the improvisation, an art form which appears to be lost in today's world of classical music, although it was widespread in the baroque era. The four
exceptional musicians of Passo Avanti weave it into the music with much skill and richness of ideas. Like a leitmotif, the unique musical language of the ensemble weaves through the program and connects the seemingly discrepant.
Baroque music. And Opera. And Improvisation, with the spirit of our time.
Selected pieces e.g.
• 2. Orchestral suite (J.S.Bach)
• Musette (J.S.Bach)
• Rigoletto-Fantasia (about Verdi)
• Va Pensiero (Verdi)
plus further compositions by selected composers and originals
Commentaries
“Joy of beautiful tone – Passo Avanti excites the audience in the Emperor Hall with an emotional mixture of classical music and jazz. (…) Those four excellent musicians live, breathe – they are music. (…) One can hardly experience a more intense and emotional concert. The excited audience insisted on three encores, standing ovations included.”
- Concert review Kaisersaal Ottobeuren, Memminger Zeitung
“Besides all the curiosity and love for experiments, the arrangements from the quartet were very sensitive regarding musical styles. Subtle Playing and a love for details made the concert a sophisticated special treat for music lovers.”
- Concert review Zweibrücker Festhalle, Die Rheinpfalz
“The concert, which had been announced as a “new symbiosis of classical music and jazz” turned out as an innovative evening of a very special kind: Passo Avanti (…) performed a magical music experience that opened up new horizons to the thrilled audience. They offered no superficial mix of styles or arbitrary combinations of bits and pieces from different periods, but a vital and loving synthesis, a new creation out of the equally mastered idioms from classical and jazz styles. The phenomenal blending of these different instruments should also be mentioned.”
- Concert review Bürgerhaus Gräfelfing, Münchner Merkur
“Unlike anything before – Alexander von Hagke goes new ways with Passo Avanti. Other than the many shallow crossover projects which simply produce classical melodies with underlying jazz rhythms, Alexander von Hagke wants to fruitfully combine the advantages of both sides: the beauty of classical tone with jazz's freedom of time and harmony.”
- Sueddeutsche Zeitung