French

The Orchestra of the “Golden Years”:  Music from the 1920s and 1930s

ET3

The Tiffany Ensemble

The Tiffany Ensemble is made up of fifteen musicians who draw on their extensive private library of musical compositions to put together, year after year, programs that are delightfully retro.  In doing so, they bring back to life the nostalgic era of the Golden Years.

When flappers in daring décolettage whirled in the arms of all of Paris to the strains of Offenbach, when the city longed to drown the memory the Great War by harkening back to the aristocratic waltzes of Strauss – the spirit of Tiffany was there, uniting elegance, refinement and joie de vivre!

The musical medleys of the Golden Years brought Rixner, Lincke and Kreuder together with arrangements of the music of Lehár, Kreisler or Verdi.  The Tiffany Ensemble revives these effervescent and delicate rhythmic alternations for all those occasions where the delights of the dance are infused with nostalgia for a time of innocence.

To recreate the period’s distinctive musical style, the Tiffany Ensemble gathers together fifteen musicians from French-speaking Switzerland around the uncompromising violin of Friedemann Sarnau.  Receptive as they are to the music’s wit and vivacity, they never lose sight of the technical dimension:  the need to find the right tunings for the strings, winds, piano and percussion to capture the early jazz intonations of the clarinet, the sax and the accordion.

In the course of honing their skills in numerous concerts, the Tiffany Ensemble has collected more than 1,500 pieces of music dating from the Golden Years, an incredible cultural resource – one that allows you to create a unique concert, show or reception that will have your guests tapping their feet in time to the dances, the excitement and the gaiety of the Golden Years.

Translation: John Weeks

violon rouge

Friedemann Sarnau