Concerts with works by

Karol Szymanowski

Polish Music Scene

Piotr Sałajczyk, photo: Karolina Sałajczyk The programme of this concert is an excellent illustration of the presence of the so-called ‘Polish tradition’ in piano music. While listening to works by two twentieth-century classics, the spirit of Chopin will discreetly come through. First to be heard will be the Piano Sonata composed by the 21-year-old Witold Lutosławski, at a time when he was fascinated by the instrumental music of Karol Szymanowski. Here, the piano reveals itself to be a source of myriad tone colours. In Szymanowski’s Masques, the piano will show itself as a narrator and portraitist. Three figures – Scheherazade, Tantris (Tristan) and Don Juan – form the literary warp of a work that is enigmatic and ambiguous in its meaning. These ‘musical masks’ will be framed by miniatures from two cycles inspired by Chopin’s music: Szymanowski’s Mazurkas and Lutosławski’s Etudes. The Polish Music Scene is a programme of music organised by the National Institute of Music and Dance in collaboration with the Warsaw Philharmonic and financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. We present Polish artists and Polish compositions – particularly works not often performed. We wish to promote the performance of Polish music, inspire musicians to turn to this repertoire and generate interest among audiences in Polish musical output as broadly understood. The programme is open to instrumentalists and singers, soloists and chamber ensembles. The programmes featuring Polish music, selected via a competition, will be performed in the Chamber Music Hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic and at other concert venues around Poland.

Quatuor Diotima

Guest performance

NOSPR / Alsop / Requiem as a tribute

“It is with greatest ease and willingness that I am working on this Concerto and, nota bene, I feel that this is going to be a first-class trick” – these words from a letter by Karol Szymanowski are proof of how important the Symphony No. 4 was for the composer. It was his unfulfilled dream of a “true” piano concerto. One of a pianistic tour de force, the first sketches of which he dropped to focus on the Stabat Mater he was working on back then. The moving „Peasant Requiem” (such was the title Szymanowski had originally intended for the work), born out of the pain he experienced after his niece’s death, it brings together religious ecstasy and a note of the Polish folklore to be heard in a recollection of the popular Bitter Lamentations resonating in the composer’s memory.How different was that world from the instrumental Chaconne by Krzysztof Penderecki! The latter is an expressive musical tribute to the memory of the late Polish Pope. It was this piece that provided a symbolic closure for the Polish Requiem, which Penderecki had been working on for a quarter of a century – a monumental chronicle of Poland’s modern history, the melancholic finale of which contains both a nostalgia for the baroque tradition and emotions of a surprisingly romantic nature.Róża ŚwiatczyńskaConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes

Avant-scènes

Polish Music Scene

FudalaRot Duo, photo: from the ensemble's archive Fryderyk Chopin composed the Grand Duo concertant in E major for cello and piano in collaboration with an acquaintance of his, the French cellist Auguste Franchomme, at the turn of 1832 and 1833. This instrumental duo, extremely popular in its day, represents the virtuoso-sentimental style brillant and is a paraphrase of themes from Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera Robert le diable. Karol Szymanowski’s Sonata in D minor, Op. 9 for violin and piano was written in Berlin in 1904. It is regarded as one of the first works of his early creative period, in which the characteristics of his individual style were fully revealed. In contrast, Roxana’s Song, from the opera King Roger, completed 20 years later, is an ecstatic vocalisation of a distinctly oriental character. Grave for cello and piano was composed by Witold Lutosławski in 1981, in memory of musicologist Stefan Jarociński. In this piece, he used motifs from Claude Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande. Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 for cello and piano was composed in 1959 at the request of the famous Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who was a friend of the composer. This three-movement work, representing the neoclassical style, is characterised by a wealth of melodic invention and expressive means. The Polish Music Scene is a programme of music organised by the National Institute of Music and Dance in collaboration with the Warsaw Philharmonic and financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. We present Polish artists and Polish compositions – particularly works not often performed. We wish to promote the performance of Polish music, inspire musicians to turn to this repertoire and generate interest among audiences in Polish musical output as broadly understood. The programme is open to instrumentalists and singers, soloists and chamber ensembles. The programmes featuring Polish music, selected via a competition, will be performed in the Chamber Music Hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic and at other concert venues around Poland.

String Quartet

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Antonio Pappano

Dreams and fantasies from enigmatic Szymanowski to Berlioz’s most rock’n’roll work, the Symphonie fantastique.

Lisa Batiashvili | London Symphony Orchestra | Sir Antonio Pappano

»Es ist ein Tanz zwischen Erotik und Mitgefühl, zwischen einer Traumwelt und der bitteren Realität.« So beschreibt Geigerin Lisa Batiashvili das erste Violinkonzert von Karol Szymanowski, in dem die Leidenschaften einer Mainacht zum Klang werden.Szymanowskis schwelgerisches Virtuosenwerk präsentiert Batiashvili gemeinsam mit dem London Symphony Orchestra und dessen Chefdirigenten Sir Antonio Pappano, die mit Hector Berlioz‘ »Symphonie fantastique« eine weitere furiose Liebesgeschichte zum Klingen bringen. Vom Ballsaal ins Naturidyll, vom Opiumrausch zum Hexentanz – reinste Romantik! Nicht minder funkelnd und elegisch: die zündende Ouvertüre »Le Corsaire«, welche Berlioz mit dem freigeistigen Freibeuter Lord Byrons in Verbindung brachte. Gefördert vom Kuratorium KölnMusik e.V.