“Where on earth is this Athens?”
“Far, far to the west. There, where Helios,
lord of us all, lets the sun sink.”
— Aeschylus, The Persians.
Berlin, 14 October 2025
Dear friends,
As you know, for nearly fifteen years, Bublitz has been dedicated to celebrating high cultures as the essence of the human spirit. In doing so, we do not discriminate, so long as it is high culture.
Since their very beginnings, Persian and European cultures have been closely intertwined, sharing many origins. With Herodotus’ Histories, historiography first separated itself from mythology and laid the foundation for historical analysis. They recount the rise of Persia to a hegemonic empire under the Achaemenid dynasty. Around forty years earlier, in 472 BC, the tragedian Aeschylus wrote The Persians—the oldest surviving play in human history.
One of the many forgotten yet so formative coincidences of European high culture is precisely this millennia-old connection between Europe – or rather Greece – and the Persian cultural sphere. At the end of last year, the opportunity arose – beyond even Zack Snyder’s 300 – to honour this relationship in the Antiquities Collection in Munich, while at the same time indulging the Romantic longing for the revival of the deities.
In an act of performative as well as conceptual remembrance, the târ virtuoso Elshan Ghasimi revives the ancient interweaving of two cultural worlds. Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom, becomes the patroness of her reinterpretation of the Radif – the repertoire of classical Persian music. The Barbarini Faun and the archaic kouroi enter into a poetic dialogue with the Persian epic Shahnameh and the trumpet of Philipp Püschel – further departures in a history spanning at least 2,500 years.
How else could we summon the gods, if not through music, contemplation and concentration?
On this occasion, we would like to draw your attention to the anniversary concert on 8 November at Morphine Raum. In this setting, a live recording will be created together with the audience – a resonant distillate of nine years of artistic work.
We wish you great enjoyment – and let us not forget, after Romain Rolland:
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
Yours,
JMH Schindele
The Reinterpretation of the Radif at the Glyptothek Munich | Elshan Ghasimi
SHAHNAMEH at the Glyptothek Munich | Elshan Ghasimi & Philipp Püschel
Elshan Ghasimi in Conversation
© all media Georg Stirnweiß and Elshan Ghasimi
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