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Concert in Shanghai

Concert in Shanghai

Mahler Chamber Orchestra: Music from the New World

Antonello Manacorda and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra open our International Chamber Orchestra series with music from the “New World”. Anton Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony, written in New York, clearly expresses the influences of both indigenous and African American melodies – although the work is also unmistakably Bohemian in colour. 2024 marks the 150th birthday of the brilliant Charles Ives, the first American composer to gain truly global recognition. Anna Prohaska sings selected songs by Ives, juxtaposed with songs by Gustav Mahler, his European contemporary.

Hadelich / Piemontesi / Music of the masters from the banks of the Seine

Stars up close! Today, Augustin Hadelich is a world-leading violinist who conquers the world's stages and performs with the best orchestras, including the NOSPR. He returns with a chamber programme, in duo with the versatile piano virtuoso Francesco Piemontesi. Their concert, which will be dominated by French music, is designed in a modern way. There is no shortage of the canon of violin music, represented by Franck's striking, emotional, late Romantic sonata and Debussy's subtle, intimate sonata. They are accompanied by a third, wonderfully melodic sonata by Francis Poulenc. Both predecessors will shine through, as Poulenc's sounds focus their qualities like a lens because our perception changes with the context. Old French music (by de Grigny and Rameau) will indicate the roots of the work of the masters from the Seine banks mentioned above. György Kurtág's handful of short musical gestures, meanwhile, will allow us to pause for a moment to take a fresh look at what we already know. Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes

Music of the Movies: From the Heart

On Valentine's Day, experience music from some of the greatest love stories in film, performed by violinist Esther Abrami, soprano Carly Paoli and a live orchestra.

in bloom

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

Chamber Music Concert

Valentin Şerban (fot. P. Andrada), Sào Soulez Larivière (fot. J. Reichardt), Tomasz Daroch (photo: Ł. Rajchert), Andrzej Ciepliński (photo: W. Grzędziński), Gabriel Czopka (photo: G. Mart), Tymoteusz Bies (photo: W. Grzędziński) An aubade is a type of love song performed – as opposed to a serenade – in the morning. George Enescu turned to this genre early in his career, in the twilight of the nineteenth century. In Enescu’s piece, three string instruments take part in delightful and lazy morning banter. Also in a mood of playfulness and life affirmation is the D major Quintet for an unusual mixture of forces, composed at the same time by the slightly older Ralph Vaughan Williams. Filled with sweet, charming melody, this work by the famous English folklore scholar was first performed in the new century and was one of the works closest to his heart. It has been several decades since the works of Ernő Dohnányi, a Hungarian immigrant condemned to long years of oblivion in his homeland, were restored to the repertoire. His first compositional achievements enthralled the ageing Johannes Brahms, and as a pianist he quickly conquered the stages of Vienna, London and Paris. His Sextet in C major, Op. 37, full of symphonic grandeur, was completed while the composer recovered from illness and first performed in 1935. Unlike his famous compatriots with folkloristic inclinations – Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály – whose works he promoted, Dohnányi turned to the tradition of late German romanticism in his Sextet, which also displays his characteristic humour. Event within the Romania-Poland Cultural Season 2024-2025

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.

Chamber Music Concert

Calidore String Quartett, photo: Marco Borgreve Franz Schubert’s biographers puzzle over why this brilliant composer, who was not fully appreciated during his lifetime, left so many incomplete scores and sketches. As in the case of his most famous unfinished work (the Symphony in B minor), it is unclear why Schubert abandoned the work he had begun in the winter of 1820 on a quartet in C minor (after all, the completed first movement promised a fine work). Happily, this was not Schubert’s last word in the genre, and the sole movement of the incomplete quartet functions today as the Quartettsatz in C minor. Thirty-five years earlier, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had received a commission from an enterprising Viennese publisher for a cycle of uncomplicated piano quartets, popular with amateur musicians performing at home. However, Mozart’s works stood out from similar repertoire and heralded the arrival of the great Romantic forms sometimes referred to as chamber piano concertos. One could hardly speak of amateur addressees of Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major, as he dedicated the work to an extremely talented pianist, his wife Clara. She was the soloist in the work’s public premiere at Leipzig’s famous Gewandhaus. The composition, which gives the pianist hardly a moment’s rest, was written at a time when the Schumanns were passionately engaged in analysing the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach.