ensemble arcimboldo

A spectacular tutti improvisation involving the audience, the Tinguely machines, the children of a school class from Riehen and the musicians of the ensemble arcimboldo formed the finale of our concert «rau·sch·end 2025–1898» at the Museum Tinguely in Basel.

Thilo Hirsch / Collective: Icon-based tutti improvisation

ensemble arcimboldo, Basel:
Thilo Hirsch – conductor/phono-fiddle
Helena Bugallo – piano
Juan Braceras – Stroh violin
Mara Miribung – Stroh cello
Ruben Mattia Santorsa – phono-ukulele
Aleksander Gabrys – double bass
Jonathan Romana – trumpet
Lanet Flores – bass clarinet
Anita Kuster – trombone
Sophia Nidecker – tuba
Maria Luisa Pizzighella – percussion
Niederholz Primary School, Riehen – class 5a
Abril Padilla, Naja Parejas – workshop facilitators
Kimon Künzler – sign painter

Project:
«rau·sch·end 2025–1898 – Compositions for horned instruments by Kagel, Padilla, Torres and Stravinsky»
ensemble arcimboldo, Basel / direction: Thilo Hirsch
www.arcimboldo.ch

Video:
Live recording, 26 October 2025, Museum Tinguely, Basel

Supported by:
Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
Fachausschuss Musik BS/BL
Ernst Göhner Stiftung
Stiftung Kagel-Burghardt
Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung
Ruth und Paul Wallach-Stiftung
Cantilena Stiftung
Fondation SUISA
gare des enfants

The second part of Mauricio Kagel’s ‹1898› for children’s voices and instruments was the penultimate piece in our concert «rau·sch·end 2025–1898», which we played with the ensemble arcimboldo at the Museum Tinguely in Basel. Kagel drew inspiration from the string instruments with sound horns used in early gramophone recordings, the best-known of which is the Stroh violin. Furthermore, in order to counter the ‘well-organised sound world of adults’, Kagel considered the participation of a school class with ‘untrained’ voices to be essential.

Mauricio Kagel (1931–2008): ‹1898› for children’s voices and instruments (1972/73), Part I, Andante – Assai Vivace (excerpts)

ensemble arcimboldo, Basel:
Thilo Hirsch – conductor/phono-fiddle
Helena Bugallo – piano
Juan María Braceras – Stroh violin
Mara Miribung – Stroh cello
Ruben Mattia Santorsa – phono-ukulele
Aleksander Gabrys – double bass
Jonathan Romana – trumpet
Lanet Flores – bass clarinet
Anita Kuster – trombone
Sophia Nidecker – tuba
Maria Luisa Pizzighella – percussion
Niederholz Primary School, Riehen – class 5a
Abril Padilla, Naja Parejas – workshop facilitators

Project:
«rau·sch·end 2025–1898 – Compositions for horned instruments by Kagel, Padilla, Torres and Stravinsky»
ensemble arcimboldo, Basel / direction: Thilo Hirsch
www.arcimboldo.ch

Video:
Live recording, 26 October 2025, Museum Tinguely, Basel

Supported by:
Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
Fachausschuss Musik BS/BL
Ernst Göhner Stiftung
Stiftung Kagel-Burghardt
Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung
Ruth und Paul Wallach-Stiftung
Cantilena Stiftung
Fondation SUISA
gare des enfants

The first piece in our concert «rau·sch·end 2025–1898», which we played with the ensemble arcimboldo at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, was Mauricio Kagel’s «1898» for children’s voices and instruments. Kagel drew inspiration from the string instruments with sound horns used in early gramophone recordings, the best-known of which is the Stroh violin. Furthermore, in order to counter the ‘well-organised sound world of adults’, Kagel considered the participation of a school class with ‘untrained’ voices to be essential.

Mauricio Kagel (1931–2008): ‘1898’ for children’s voices and instruments (1972/73), Part I, Moderato – Allegretto (excerpts)

ensemble arcimboldo, Basel:
Thilo Hirsch – conductor/phono-fiddle
Helena Bugallo – piano
Juan María Braceras – Stroh violin
Mara Miribung – Stroh cello
Ruben MattiaRuben Mattia Santorsa – phono-ukulele
Aleksander Gabrys – double bass
Jonathan Romana – trumpet
Lanet Flores – bass clarinet
Anita Kuster – trombone
Sophia Nidecker – tuba
Maria Luisa Pizzighella – percussion
Niederholz Primary School, Riehen – class 5a
Abril Padilla, Naja Parejas – workshop facilitators

Project:
«rau·sch·end 2025–1898 – Compositions for horned instruments by Kagel, Padilla, Torres and Stravinsky»
ensemble arcimboldo, Basel / direction: Thilo Hirsch
www.arcimboldo.ch

Video:
Live recording, 26 October 2025, Museum Tinguely, Basel

Supported by:
Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
Fachausschuss Musik BS/BL
Ernst Göhner Stiftung
Stiftung Kagel-Burghardt
Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung
Ruth und Paul Wallach-Stiftung
Cantilena Stiftung
Fondation SUISA
gare des enfants

The first two movements of the «Jungle Jazz Suite», a new composition for gramophone and phono-fiddle by Charlotte Torres, can be heard in the fourth video of our project «rau·sch·end 2025–1898», which we performed with the ensemble arcimboldo at the Museum Tinguely in Basel.

Charlotte Torres (*1979): Jungle Jazz Suite für Phono-Fiddle und Grammophon (UA),
1. String-Stroh in the Jungle with Pelicans and Flamingos
2. Hok! Hok! The Stroh Toucan's Song

«rau·sch·end 2025–1898 – Compositions for horned instruments by Kagel, Padilla, Torres and Stravinsky»
ensemble arcimboldo, Basel / direction: Thilo Hirsch
www.arcimboldo.ch
Live recording, 26 October 2025, Museum Tinguely, Basel

Another type of horned instrument can be heard in the third video of our project “rau·sch·end 2025–1898”, which we performed with the ensemble arcimboldo at the Museum Tinguely in Basel. A bass clarinet, played by Lanet Flores:

Mauricio Kagel (1931–2008): Schattenklänge (1995), Episode II

«rau·sch·end 2025–1898 – Compositions for horned instruments by Kagel, Padilla, Torres and Stravinsky»
ensemble arcimboldo, Basel / direction: Thilo Hirsch
www.arcimboldo.ch
Live recording, 26 October 2025, Museum Tinguely, Basel

In the second video of our project «rau·sch·end 2025–1898» with the ensemble arcimboldo at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Juan María Braceras plays Stroh violin alongside Helena Bugallo on the piano:

Igor Strawinsky (1882–1971): Tango for (Stroh-)violin and piano (1940)

«rau·sch·end 2025–1898 – Compositions for horned instruments by Kagel, Padilla, Torres and Stravinsky»
ensemble arcimboldo, Basel / direction: Thilo Hirsch
www.arcimboldo.ch
Live recording, 26 October 2025, Museum Tinguely, Basel

In the first video of our project «rau·sch·end 2025–1898», which we performed at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, I play phono-fiddle together with a gramophone:

Abril Padilla (*1970): 78 RPM. Instrumental theatre for phono-fiddle and gramophone (premiere)

Thilo Hirsch – phono-fiddle

«rau·sch·end 2025–1898 – Compositions for horned instruments by Kagel, Padilla, Torres and Stravinsky»
ensemble arcimboldo / direction: Thilo Hirsch
Live recording from 26 October 2025 at the Museum Tinguely, Basel
www.arcimboldo.ch