Romanian tarogato player Dumitru Farcas recovered his beloved instrument which had been stolen last week before an anniversary concert of his friend Gheorghe Zamfir he was supposed to participate in at the Romanian Athenaeum.

The instrument was stolen from a van parked next to the Athenaeum on Saturday, May 31, and was found in a park next to the Gara de Nord train station, on Sunday. The man who fund it took it to the police, who returned it to its rightful owner.

The tarogato, also known as Turkish pipe, is a woodwind instrument commonly used in Romanian and Hungarian traditional music. Although few people heard about this instrument, those who have heard Dumitru Farcas play his never forget it.

Dumitru Farcas, 76 years old, was born in Maramures, a region in Norhern Romania which is well known for its traditions. He is one of the most famous Romanian instrumentalists and he played his tarogato on scenes all over the world. He was made honorary citizen of the cities Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Reşiţa and Baia Mare, as well as Pyongyang in North Korea.

He has been playing the same instrument for the last 55 years, a Stowasser tarogato, which would be the equivalent of a Stradivarius violin. It would sell for thousands of euros, but there are few who could play it better than Farcas.

One of his most famous music pieces is Feciorasca de pe Mures which would roughly translate to The song of the Lads on Mures, Mures being a river that passes through the middle of Transylvania. This song was for many years the opening music for the Tezaur Folcloric (Folk Treasure), a TV show that has been running on the Romanian national television TVR for over 30 years.

Here are some other pieces he played.

 editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Dumitru Farcas Facebook page)