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NOSPR Chamber Musicians / Ysaÿe / Enescu / Chamber music but with symphonic flair

It is a rare opportunity to listen to an octet. This type of ensemble on the verge of chamber and orchestral music involving eight instruments has had a variety of instrumentations and patterns based on them. The reference point for the purely stringed ensemble cast is the octet written in 1825 by Felix Mendelssohn, who was only sixteen years old then. Following in his footsteps in 1900 was the nineteen-year-old George Enescu, who was by then already quite prolific as a composer, as he began making music as soon as he learned the notes at the age of five. As it turned out, he grew into the greatest Romanian composer and one of the most outstanding violinists of his era. Written in 1900, his String Octet in C major is an incredibly up-to-date work compared to the trends of the time as Enescu captured the difficult moment of Romanticism's transition into Modernism. Despite being divided into four movements, it is essentially a continuous piece with orchestral panache and rich expression. All of this makes it no worse than many symphonies! Adam SuprynowiczConcert duration: approximately 80 minutes

Silesian String Quartet / British Fantasy on the 110th anniversary of the birth of Andrzej Panufnik

“Music is the expression of emotions and feelings. I hold as my ideal a piece in which poetic content is combined with excellence of musical craftmanship. Poetry alone does not determine the musical value of a piece, just as craftmanship alone risks falling into a pitfall of using worn-out formulas. Enduring beauty is only born from a balance of both” Andrzej Panufnik (1952) Silesian String Quartet – 45 years of experience, more than 150 first performances of chamber works, thousands of concerts in the world's most famous concert halls, more than 60 albums, more than 20 nominations, 10 ‘Fryderyk’ statuettes and the most important – the ‘musical Oscar’, i.e., the Gramophone Classical Music Award. The ensemble specialises in the discovery, promotion and recording of Polish music and is famous for its first performances under the guidance of composers. Ditching the traditional hierarchical model of performing music, the ensemble emphasises exchange and collaboration with other musicians. This season, the artists will introduce the work of Sir Andrzej Panufnik on the 110th anniversary of the birth of the only Polish composer to be awarded a title of nobility by Queen Elizabeth II. The programme will be complemented by works by native British composers: a rarely performed Clarinet Quintet by Arthur Somervell and a work by John Metcalf, a contemporary Welsh artist known for combining traditional musical elements with modern compositional techniques. He entitled his quartet Llwybrau Cân, which means Paths of Song in Welsh. Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 100 minutes

Pure rhythm

AUKSO x Marcin Masecki

We won't judge – going to this concert, do you want to listen to Mozart or Masecki more? Marcin Masecki is well-known to audiences of many musical genres. He owes his popularity to such projects as Jazz Band Młynarski-Masecki or his collaboration with the majority of artists on the Polish jazz and pop scene, including Tomasz Stańko, Michał Urbaniak, Wojciech Waglewski, or Reni Jusis. The artist regularly surprises audiences with further experiments that are head-turning for some and a delight for others. At a recent concert for the Polish Radio Orchestra's season finale, Masecki was to perform Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto. Asked just before he went on stage whether he intended to play 'normally or his way', he replied that this remains to be seen. Is there a place for jazz improvisations in Mozart concertos? Will Marcin Masecki make another joke this time and, to everyone's surprise, play by the book? Looking only at the event programme, it is not entirely clear what to expect. This is a concert you have to attend! Szymon MaliszewskiConcert duration: approximately 80 minutes

NOSPR / Todorov / A revolutionary symphony

Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s career spanned two eras – those of classicism and romanticism. As a child and teenager, he studied with Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Later, he befriended Ludwig van Beethoven, and later still the young Fryderyk Chopin, the Polish composer highly valuing his compositions and finding them inspirational for his own early work. Hummel’s Concerto in E-flat major for the trumpet was composed in 1803, with Anton Weidinger, a Viennese virtuoso of the instrument, in mind. Its premiere in a New Year concert in January 1804 was a celebration of the composer being appointed Konzertmeister to Nikolaus II, Prince Esterházy's estate. The soloist is accompanied by a small orchestra consisting of flutes, clarinets, oboes, horns, timpani and strings. The mood is bright, and the virtuosic parts are suggestively combined with lyrical ones.Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major was composed at the same time as Hummel’s work. Its premiere to place in Vienna in 1800 and the strong impression it made helped its creator reinforce his position among the city’s musicians. Commentators pointed out the work’s innovativeness, which lay in surprising key changes, strong and unexpected rhythmical accents, as well as an increased autonomy of woodwind instruments. Paradoxically, later researchers preferred to emphasise the fact that this early work of Beethoven’s still features, quite naturally for a rather young composer, significant influence of Haydn’s and Mozart’s oeuvres. The truth lies in the middle – this is a work in which achievements of previous generations were creatively transformed by a progressively oriented composer.Oskar ŁapetaConcert duration: approximately 70 minutes

JazzKLUB / Wonderfully swinging / Kresten Osgood Quintet

It is difficult to overestimate Kresten Osgood’s significance for the Danish scene. There is nothing he would not play, no challenge he would not accept. And even when he wants to pay tribute to the jazz tradition in the iconic formula of a quintet with the trumpet and the saxophone, he does it on his own terms – alongside the immortal standards by Monk and Dolphy, he reaches for contemporary musicians (such as Kirk Knuffke), ones who have not found a wide recognition (such as Elmo Hope and Randy Weston) and those who have found some, but only in their own country (such as the Austrian Harry Pepl or the Danish Leo Mathisen). For reasons unknown, returns to jazz classics are best done by musicians who have tried their hand at numerous avant-garde ventures. Osgood’s quintet performs the wonderfully swinging pieces in a slightly frolicsome manner, as it would have been put years ago, or totally chilled out, as it would be put today. They smile, find joy in their playing and never miss any chance to have fun with the material to be performed. Tomasz Gregorczyk Concert duration: approximately 90 minutes

Karina Canellakis & Alice Sara Ott

Lumière et pesanteur, written by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho as a gift for the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, radiates a shimmering sonic texture that is captivating, and serves as a brief opening prelude. Maurice Ravel’s brilliant and jazzy Piano Concerto in G major, written between 1929 and 1931, is entrusted to the sensitive and assured hands of pianist Alice Sara Ott – its colorful, playful style providing an exciting contrast to the dark, incisive soundworld of Jean Sibelius. The American conductor Karina Canellakis has chosen to showcase this soundworld by performing the four-movement suite that portrays the adventures of the hero (and womanizer) Lemminkäinen, as found in the Finnish national epic Kalevala.

Karina Canellakis & Alice Sara Ott

Lumière et pesanteur, written by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho as a gift for the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, radiates a shimmering sonic texture that is captivating, and serves as a brief opening prelude. Maurice Ravel’s brilliant and jazzy Piano Concerto in G major, written between 1929 and 1931, is entrusted to the sensitive and assured hands of pianist Alice Sara Ott – its colorful, playful style providing an exciting contrast to the dark, incisive soundworld of Jean Sibelius. The American conductor Karina Canellakis has chosen to showcase this soundworld by performing the four-movement suite that portrays the adventures of the hero (and womanizer) Lemminkäinen, as found in the Finnish national epic Kalevala.

JazzKLUB / Myra Melford Splash Trio / Juicy Boogie Woogie

She debuted in the early 90s, in the golden era of New York’s Downtown. Since the beginnings of her collaboration with such musicians as Dave Douglas or Chris Speed, her further projects have constantly confirmed her status as a pianist at the forefront of modern unorthodox jazz. Melford’s openness to the world is unparallelled – she finds artistic inspiration in a journey to India, the ceremonies of the Mexican Huichol tribe, poetry by the Sufi mystic Rumi, as well as in the story of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The music of her newest trio is inspired by the paintings of the American abstractionist Cy Twombly. The fact that each member of the trio can boast impressive skill while simultaneously keeping their minds open, enables the group to fluently meander between the abstract and the concrete, between a delicateness of mood and pure expressiveness. With years of experience behind her, Melford’s music today is as refined as it has never been before, and yet not devoid of wildness and unpredictability. There are few pianists capable of transitioning between clusters in then vein of Cecil Taylor and a juicy boogie woogie with such elan. Tomasz Gregorczyk Concert duration: approximately 90 minutes

Reunion with the dream team

Katowice Culture Nature Festival / The Gardens of Goodbyes / NOSPR / Alsop / Mahler

Having composed his gigantic Symphony No. 8 – crowned with the Goethean vision of the afterworld, in which Faust’s soul, seeking salvation, is wandering among other spiritual beings – in his next work, Mahler reached for texts by classical Chinese poets translated by Hans Bethge. These present a diametrically different perspective: instead of the heavens, their gaze is directed towards the Earth.The Song of the Earth is, in a way, a symphony of songs performed by, alternatively, a tenor and an alto voice, accompanied by the orchestra. Mahler constructs scales, on which he places the woes and joys of human life, troubled by the menace of death, yet replete with wonder at the beauty of nature and the works of human hands. In the final movement – titled The Farewell and lasting as long as the previous five altogether – the kaleidoscope of the lights and shadows of human fate is shown from the perspective of a person bidding both their friend and the world farewell. Looking back at their life, they soberly conclude that it was devoid of happiness. And yet, the farewell takes place in a bright, spring-like aura and in a tone of coming to terms with fate. The one who is passing away finds solace in the image of nature’s eternal renewal. The verdict is a comforting one: despite all else, life was worth living. Mahler’s music reaches heights of subtlety, delicateness and timelessness. Marcin Trzęsiok

Reunion with the dream team

Simone Young

Sound sorceress Simone Young will be conducting the BRSO for the third time in a program that she herself has chosen. It includes Anton Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, in which Webern condenses the atonal language established by Schönberg into a miniature form (the fourth movement consists of only six measures). This masterful aphorism forms an antipode to the grotesque atmosphere of Alban Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra, which the 29-year-old composer wrote as an apprentice piece for the 40th birthday of his teacher, Arnold Schönberg: it arises out of distorted sound masses that gradually coalesce into music. Zemlinsky’s magnificent Lyric Symphony completes the program: eclectic, sophisticated, and one of his most important compositions, in which soloists Maria Bengtsson and Michael Volle will add their own personal touches.

Katowice Culture Nature Festival / Oriental Dreams and Polish Springs / NOSPR / Kuan

Ferde Grofé, the American composer known for his orchestration of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, spent much time in the Grand Canyon, observing changes of the seasons and the weather. His impressions proved inspirational for the composition of the 1929-1931 five-movement Grand Canyon Suite. Thanks to the suggestive musical imaging, the composition quickly gained popularity in the United States and appeared in a 1958 Walt Disney animation. Its last movement, Cloudburst, which will open the final concert of the Katowice Culture Nature Festival, shows a picturesque idyll interrupted by the eponymous violent phenomenon.In 1904, Maurice Ravel, inspired by Arabian Nights and Rimski-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, completed a cycle of three songs for soprano and orchestra, setting to music poems by Tristan Klingsor. In order to present the oriental dreams of a European fascinated with the magic of the East, the composer attempted to translate the scents, colours, characters and sounds of the Orient into music. Thus, he created an impressionistic vision of an idealised realm of subtle beauty and sensual love.A year prior to Ravel’s Scheherazade, Zygmunt Noskowski composes the Symphony No. 3, his last one, intended to “express the moods of the seasons with sounds”. He places each season within the Polish sonic landscape through the use of characteristic dance rhythms and four Polish folk songs. The work is a sonic nod to the tradition of German pastoral symphonies in the Beethovenian spirit, thanks to brilliantly outlined themes, the “pastoral” key of F minor and the illustrative titles of its movements.Wojciech Stępień

Simone Young

Sound sorceress Simone Young will be conducting the BRSO for the third time in a program that she herself has chosen. It includes Anton Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, in which Webern condenses the atonal language established by Schönberg into a miniature form (the fourth movement consists of only six measures). This masterful aphorism forms an antipode to the grotesque atmosphere of Alban Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra, which the 29-year-old composer wrote as an apprentice piece for the 40th birthday of his teacher, Arnold Schönberg: it arises out of distorted sound masses that gradually coalesce into music. Zemlinsky’s magnificent Lyric Symphony completes the program: eclectic, sophisticated, and one of his most important compositions, in which soloists Maria Bengtsson and Michael Volle will add their own personal touches.

Reunion with the dream team

JazzKLUB / Theo Croker Quartet / The Visionary Trumpet

It is not easy to live up to the legend and bear the legacy of your grandfather – a trumpet player who was a favourite of Armstrong and toured with Goodman. The grandfather was an icon of New Orleans jazz who had little to do with New Orleans itself but went down in history as a significant genre representative. From Doc Cheatham, Croker inherited determination and a propensity for titanic work. He was exposed to jazz as a child, although at the time, he didn't understand what heritage was, and he wanted to play the trumpet because it sounded majestic and loud. His music has a lot of elegance and a willingness to experiment with style. You can hear soul music, R&B, or hip-hop there, and Croker does not shy away from electronic music either. His artistic emploi can be summed up in two words: ambition and vision. A quote could also be used: 'The world is constantly changing. It was fought differently by my grandfather; it is fought differently by me.' Maria Wilczek-Krupa Concert duration: approximately 90 minutes

The power of brass, the might of the manuals

Although the organ is traditionally associated with sacred music and grand concerts, it can also be a fascinating complement to less typical chamber settings. The untypical combinations in this year’s organ concert series provide unique sounds and new, unexpected combinations. The result? We become more open to new interpretational possibilities and free experimenting. The programme of the concert, including pieces by Petr Eben, Otto Hoser, Thierry Escaich and Craig Phillips, shows how well the organ can sound paired with brass instruments and percussion. Hear it for yourselves: a fascinating richness of new possibilities! [Alexandra Kozowicz] Concert duration: approximately 50 minutes

Silesian String Quartet / British Fantasy on the 110th anniversary of the birth of Andrzej Panufnik

“Music is the expression of emotions and feelings. I hold as my ideal a piece in which poetic content is combined with excellence of musical craftmanship. Poetry alone does not determine the musical value of a piece, just as craftmanship alone risks falling into a pitfall of using worn-out formulas. Enduring beauty is only born from a balance of both” Andrzej Panufnik (1952) Silesian String Quartet – 45 years of experience, more than 150 first performances of chamber works, thousands of concerts in the world's most famous concert halls, more than 60 albums, more than 20 nominations, 10 ‘Fryderyk’ statuettes and the most important – the ‘musical Oscar’, i.e., the Gramophone Classical Music Award. The ensemble specialises in the discovery, promotion and recording of Polish music and is famous for its first performances under the guidance of composers. Ditching the traditional hierarchical model of performing music, the ensemble emphasises exchange and collaboration with other musicians. This season, the artists will introduce the work of Sir Andrzej Panufnik on the 110th anniversary of the birth of the only Polish composer to be awarded a title of nobility by Queen Elizabeth II. The programme will be complemented by works by native British composers Ralph Vaughan Williams and Edward Elgar, whose String Quartet in E minor, op. 83 is an example of late Romantic aesthetics, demonstrating the composer's ability to combine deep lyricism with expressive formal structure. Hommage à Chopin is one of Andrzej Panufnik's most treasured pieces, demonstrating his deep fascination with the work of the great Polish composer. The original version of this musical homage was for solo piano. Later, Panufnik made arrangements for various instrumental ensembles, including flute and string quintet. The piece contains nuanced references to Chopin's style, both in harmony and melody. Panufnik employs variation techniques, developing the theme to draw on the Romantic tradition while introducing modern rhythmic and harmonic elements. [Alexandra Kozowicz]Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 110 minutes

NOSPR / Jackson / Ciepliński / At the singular garden of cosmic speculation

In her Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres for orchestra (2014), the American composer and pianist Missy Mazzoli offers spectacular sonic effects. The word „sinfonia” carries is widely associated with the times of Vivaldi and Bach – and rightly so, as there is no dearth of Baroque decoration, ornamentation and stylistic inspiration to be found here. The sonic cloak draped over those rich garments is, however, quite modern. Strings and harmonicas create stained-glass-like loops, the vibraphone lightens the sound, lending it a dancing tone. The orchestral sun rises fast and shines bright.Aaron Copland’s Concerto for clarinet, string orchestra, harp and piano (1948) also glimmers with a blaze of colour. The master’s specific signum, which is bringing together superficially distant styles and techniques (neoclassicism, Mahler’s symphony, jazz and dodecaphony), found its full expression here, while the very first melody of the clarinet makes it clear that Copland is a lyrical poet of sound. This eclecticism, so specific for his music, was transferred to further generations of American composers – and it was in such a convention that Michael Gandolfi designed The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (2004), orchestral piece inspired by the cosmological garden established in Scotland by the landscape architect Charles Jencks and his wife Maggie. Just like at the Jencks’, Gandolfi also offers a multi-coloured space and secrets of the universe coded in moving segments. “It seemed proper for music to participate in this magnificent joining of physics and architecture,” writes the composer about his spectacular opus.Maria Wilczek-Krupa

Sir Simon Rattle

Francis Poulenc’s cantata for double mixed choir Figure humaine creates an immense impression: the piece, which transforms poems by surrealist poet Paul Éluard into sound, rapturously culminates in a chord spanning over four octaves that requires the sopranos to sing a high E – an outcry serving as the overwhelming conclusion to this choral masterpiece, which is one of Sir Simon Rattle’s favorite works. With Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (of which, regrettably, only the second suite is often performed), the BRSO chief conductor continues his musical journey through the Ballets Russes following Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat. Rattle will also conduct Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna in honor of Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday which falls this year: “My teacher, mentor, and friend, whom I miss dearly.”

The famous Serenade from Miloš Forman’s film

Large wind instrument ensembles saw their triumphs in the 18th century. Pieces called serenades were often written for them and performed to make social gatherings and dinners more pleasant, usually around 9pm. Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus, wrote more than 30 such serenades. However, it was his son who achieved mastery in their composition. Gran Partita is a work of massive proportions, full of charm, delightful instrumental combinations and lovely harmonies. In Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus (and Miloš Forman's film of the same title), Salieri first grasps the genius of Mozart by listening to this very piece as he feels the boundless longing with which it is filled. When writing his Serenade for wind instruments almost a century later, Antonín Dvořák was impressed by Mozart's work, which the Adagio directly referred to in the third movement. His work combines a 'retro' style with enchantingly beautiful melodies, references to Czech folk music and a touch of romantic passion. Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration: approximately 100 minutes

Sir Simon Rattle

Francis Poulenc’s cantata for double mixed choir Figure humaine creates an immense impression: the piece, which transforms poems by surrealist poet Paul Éluard into sound, rapturously culminates in a chord spanning over four octaves that requires the sopranos to sing a high E – an outcry serving as the overwhelming conclusion to this choral masterpiece, which is one of Sir Simon Rattle’s favorite works. With Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (of which, regrettably, only the second suite is often performed), the BRSO chief conductor continues his musical journey through the Ballets Russes following Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat. Rattle will also conduct Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna in honor of Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday which falls this year: “My teacher, mentor, and friend, whom I miss dearly.”

JazzKLUB / “Laborka”, or the showpiece of jazz Krakow (canceled)

This band has more than half a century of history if we don't count the break of a dozen years arranged by Janusz Grzywacz and Marek Stryszowski at the turn of the century. They debuted in 1971 at Gitariada '71, a festival they organised in Nowa Huta, Krakow, which introduced fusion and jazz-rock elements to the Polish scene. Over the years, they have developed their style, which has been compared to that of the American group Weather Report, consisting, especially in the early period, of experimenting with instrumentation and combining different types of sound. Laborka ("Lab"), as they are colloquially called, is undoubtedly a showpiece of jazz Krakow and, simultaneously, a top spot on the list of Polish bands of all time. Maria Wilczek-Krupa Concert duration: approximately 90 minutes

Alan Gilbert & Alisa Weilerstein

More Sibelius! What fortune! After the Lemminkäinen Suite, we first take a wild ride through the night and into the liberating sunrise the Finnish composer evokes in his symphonic poem, before finally immersing ourselves in the splendid soundworld of his Fifth Symphony. Sibelius searched for this special sound throughout his life. It took him three attempts and a total of five years to complete this work, which he described as “wrestling with God.” Placed between the ride and the wrestling is a composition by Thomas Larcher, whose music The Times praised as “one of this century’s wonders”: returning into darkness is a work written for cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who recently premiered it with the New York Philharmonic. The European premiere will be performed by the BRSO conducted by Alan Gilbert.

NOSPR / Boreyko / Tchumburidze / Serenading night and love

Giya Kancheli’s music arouses controversy in the world of contemporary music. Lyrical, sometimes even sentimental, immersed in the spirituality of Eastern Christianity, it remained a separate phenomenon against the background of the music composed in the countries of the former Soviet Union right before the fall of the empire and afterwards. From a Western-music-oriented perspective, its characteristic nostalgia remains unintelligible for many. The title of Chiaroscuro refers to the renaissance-baroque artistic technique of working with bold contrasts between light and dark. In Kancheli’s violin concerto, the contrasts seem to be outlining visible shapes, only sonic ones, clearly. Whether we remain on the surface of that music or let it harmonise with our emotions remains much more personal of a matter than it is in the case of the Western conventions that are closer to us.Zygmunt Krauze’s Serenade also carries with it a nostalgic charge, yet reined in with greater moderation. While listening to it, we can hear echoes of earlier popular music and an idealised elegance included within the composer’s individual language, which in turn is still ringing with echoes unism, on which Krauze would build his separateness in the early 70s. The reference to the genre of serenade, associated with night and love, is reflected in the composer’s dedication: „A ma femme Isabelle.” The personal tone of the concert will be completed with Bedřich Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 in E minor in an expressive orchestration by the legendary conductor George Szell, which brings the work’s title, “From My Life”, closer to the surface.Adam SuprynowiczConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 110 minutes

Alan Gilbert & Alisa Weilerstein

More Sibelius! What fortune! After the Lemminkäinen Suite, we first take a wild ride through the night and into the liberating sunrise the Finnish composer evokes in his symphonic poem, before finally immersing ourselves in the splendid soundworld of his Fifth Symphony. Sibelius searched for this special sound throughout his life. It took him three attempts and a total of five years to complete this work, which he described as “wrestling with God.” Placed between the ride and the wrestling is a composition by Thomas Larcher, whose music The Times praised as “one of this century’s wonders”: returning into darkness is a work written for cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who recently premiered it with the New York Philharmonic. The European premiere will be performed by the BRSO conducted by Alan Gilbert.

Gembalski / Organ improvisations / From the baroque to the present day

What did his principals most frequently reprimand Johann Sebastian Bach for? For his musical improvisations between parts of a service being too long. Such improvised organ interludes, fantasias and capriccios provided inspiration for the creation of organ concertos. Today, we also enjoy improvised jazz concerts – let us remember that it all began with the baroque, and musicians such as Leszek Możdżer owe Bach more than we might think. Prof. Julian Gembalski’s recital is such a return to the improvised organ roots and to a spontaneous expression of genius. It is a tribute to the rich tradition, transporting listeners to times, when music was created here and now, before the audiences’ very eyes and in their ears. [Alexandra Kozowicz]Concert duration: approximately 80 minutes

Eliot Quartet / Music with a sense of humor

Haydn wrote the Quartet in C major op. 54 No. 2, both virtuosic and exceptionally deep in its artistry, with Johann Tost, a violinist of the Esterhazy orchestra he was leading, in mind. Much to his surprise, he later learnt that the musician had sold the work to the publisher Seiber, keeping all money for himself. What was more, the quartet was published with changes unauthorised by Haydn. In his Quartet No. 3, Brahms obviously references the Viennese classic, creating a work of classical subjectivity, with all-encompassing sense of humour, and a tiny bit of the romantic emotionality in the slow movement, reminding us clearly of that being a completely different era already. Krzysztof Meyer, in turn, freely admits that the composition Au-delà d’une absence is a quartet in the style of his teacher, Dmitri Shostakovich. It is an attempt at continuing the Russian composer’s unfinished plan of writing 24 string quartets in all keys. An interesting and successful attempt, let us add. Adam SuprynowiczConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 100 minutes