The project that Florin Răducanu proposes to this edition of Sibiu Jazz Festival is new and innovating for the Romanian and even European jazz scene. The piano player/composer takes over the musical project innovated by Gershwin and adopted by Leonard Berstein and “translates” it through his musical culture and his creative judgment.

The composer/piano player says that symphonic jazz is an example of cultural syncretism to him – the European culture intertwines with the African-American culture.

“Differences, of any kind they might be, must not disunite; it must be a factor of the cultural progress if there is wisdom” is the motto that Florin Răducanu chose for his project.

“Mapamond Pictures” is an “orchestrated rhapsody” for piano, jazz combo (wind instrumentalist, double bass, drums, percussion) and a symphonic ensemble. It has got three continuous parts with different rhythm moves. As the title says, the composer wants to reproduce various geographical and cultural regions in intertwining parts. It starts with a Romanian folkloric theme and continues with an indefinite – from point of view origin – rhythm, as the afro rhythms can be assimilated with the rhythms used in the musical rituals from Romania .

The next theme reminds of the virtuosity of European Romanticism. The core of the part is jazz and has a piano improvisation. The end returns to the original theme, this time in an amplified orchestrated manner.

“Tribute to Maria Magdalena” is the second work that the composer/piano player brings to this night of symphonic jazz in Sibiu . This piece is composed for an amplified ensemble: piano, tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, double bass, drums, percussion – the jazz ensemble – merging with the symphonic ensemble of the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Sibiu.

The work has three parts: 1. „ Fatima 1917”

2. „Song for St. Anthony”

3. „Ave Maria“

It has many musical surprises where the symphonic ensemble participates at the improvising labor of the jazz instrumentalists. This project is also nonconformist by the position of the musicians on stage – the piano is in the middle because the piano player will also be the coordinator-director.