I had heard {Parissa} for the first time two years ago, when they played one of her concerts together with the DASTAN Ensemble performing the songs of the double-CD Shoorideh on the German radio programme WDR, and I enjoyed it very much. Yesterday (31 October 2005) at the PHILHARMONIE in Cologne was the first time I saw and heard Parissa live, although I had already seen Dastan performing together with {Sima Bina} at the same venue in 2001.

What I found a bit disappointing when I entered the Philharmonie was the fact that probably only one third of the seats (maybe even less) had been sold. Still, there were several hundred people in the audience, most of them probably Iranians.

This night, Parissa and Dastan presented their current double-CD Gol-e Behesht, released in Germany by Network Medien GmbH. I hadn't noticed before the concert that there was also a programme available which contained German translations of all the lyrics sung by Parissa, but I bought it afterwards. However, during the concert I had absolutely no idea what Parissa was singing about, because I don't know any Persian and I hadn't bought the new CD yet, which also contains translations in German, French and English.

But even though it might add to the fascination, if you understand what the lyrics of a song are about, you can still enjoy a concert/music without this knowledge and so did I. I have to admit that the way of Persian singing sometimes still sounds a bit unusual to my ears, because it is very different from what you usually get to hear in Western European countries, yet since I first saw Sima Bina and the Hamnava Ensemble live on German TV in 1999 at the Weltmusikfestival in Bonn, I've got more and more used to it.

I have hardly any knowledge about the theory of Persian music and singing, but to my ears it was obvious that Parissa's vocals expressed very deep emotions, and when I read the German translations of the lyrics after the concert it was easy to understand why, because these are the emotions expressed in the lyrics themselves. The lyrics sung on the album Gol-e Behesht and thus also performed at this concert are poems by {Nizami}, {Rumi}, {Sa'di}, {Araghi} and {Djoshghani}. As far as I can tell by the German translations, all of them deal with love, yet the way they do is true poetic art. Considering the fact that most of these poems (those by Rumi and Nizami) date back to the 12^th and 13^th century, this is even more impressive.

Just like on the previous album, Shoorideh, all the music on the new album Gol-e Behesht was written by members of Dastan. The music on the first CD, which was played during the second part of the concert, was composed by {Hamid Motebassem}, whereas {Hossein Behroozinia} wrote the music on the second, which was played during the first part of the concert yesterday.

While there is no doubt that Parissa is an excellent singer and all five members of Dastan are absolute masters of their instruments, I have to say that the most spectacular moments of the concert yesterday were probably those where Pajman Hadadi (Tombak, Pendarik) and Behnam Samani (Daf, Dayereh, Udo) played their solo-parts which several times seemed to turn into some kind of musical duelling. The synchronicity and virtuosity of their finger-movements and the way they seemed to understand each other blindly was absolutely amazing. But it has to be said that all musicians harmonized perfectly with each other and it seems they all appreciate and respect each other.

All the songs of the first part of the concert as well as those of the second part were played without interruption, i.e. there was no break between the songs allowing the audience to applaud. Still, after the first part of the concert as well as at the end there were standing ovations and Parissa and Dastan even could be convinced to play one encore. By the reaction of the audience after the first notes it seemed that a lot of people recognized this song. While I have to say that it also sounded familiar to me, I can´t say which song it actually was.

The total playing time of the concert including the encore was more than two hours. I noticed that the entire concert was filmed with three cameras, so I hope that somewhere in the future it will be released on DVD (just like Sima Bina´s concert at the Theater am Tanzbrunnen in Cologne two years ago). However, it was already announced that this concert will be aired on the German radio-station WDR 3 on December 1^st. For anyone interested who can´t receive WDR 3 on the radio: The programmes of WDR are also available as live-stream on the internet.

All in all, it was a memorable evening and one of the best concerts I've heard so far. After the concert in the foyer of the Philharmonie, people even got a chance to talk to Parissa and the musicians. And I got the booklet of the double-CD “Gol-e Behesht”, which I had bought immediately after the concert, signed by Parissa herself and four of the five members of the Ensemble Dastan.