Eliot Quartet / Music with a sense of humor

Great works of music

Why not play piano concertos as a chamber ensemble? It would be impossible to show rational obstacles. In the times before the phonograph, that was exactly how people learnt great works of music that were not being performed at a concert hall near them. Privately, at home, at meetings, making music together. It is the meeting of artistic individualities and their willingness to collaborate that give chamber music its sense. Hence the presence of Chopin’s Concerto in E minor in the version for five instruments today, on the 175th death anniversary of this most important Polish musician of all. For the same reason, its counterpoint will be the famous Trout, Schubert’s masterpiece which introduced the early romantic sensitivity to chamber music. This is music derived from the spirit of a simple song. These two romantic build up layers of human emotions, activate affections and pile up associations. This is all we need. Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration: approximately 100 minutes

Turicum Quartet / Menuet of the witches

Joseph Haydn has been called “Papa Haydn”, both affectionately and pejoratively. Meanwhile, he was a composer whose mastery and unpredictability went hand in hand. Let us appreciate the emotional glimmering of the music, its surprising turns, sense of humour (the “menuet of the witches” quite unlike the court dance), or the finale inspired by music of the Romani people living in the borderlands of Austria and Hungary, where the composer spent most of his life. The spirit of Austria-Hungary is also referenced – already after the fall of the dual monarchy – in the modernist parodying miniatures by Erwin Schulhoff, who enhanced them with motifs of his native Czechia. Even though Szymanowski knew the capital of Austria-Hungary, he did not like it; his String Quartet No. 1 represents a different direction, as Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz wrote: “Never before has any of his works breathed such a scorching air of the South; not the heat of the Sicilian south or the mourning of the Greek heat, in which Pan’s flute kills hearts – but the juicy and ripe heat which smells like the crops of Ukraine.” Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration: approximately 60 minutes

Memoirs of a Geisha and other gems of cinematography

This is the essence of chamber musicianship – we play what we like. We play for pleasure - our own and that of our listeners. The idea of chamber music is summarised in the Italian term da camera, which means playing for a chamber, a room, or a small hall. It denotes semi-private, intimate music. It is lovely when such a mood is carried into the concert hall. Today, there is an opportunity to do so because we love the tunes we already know, and there are plenty of them here. Most listeners will recognise Sting's Roxanne, Satie's Gnosienne or Barber's Adagio. Exactly like in the programme Name That Tune, after two sounds, we will already know what's coming next. Concert hall goers, on the other hand, will once again be seduced by gripping Schubert's Andante or Arvo Pärt's Fratres. Lovers of cinematic melodramas will get a handful of John Williams tunes, while refined musical gourmets will get Glass's Mishima, Vasks' Meditation and Schnittke's waltz. Not a single note goes to waste here! Adam Suprynowicz

Masecki / Markowicz / A fresh look at Brahms’ music

Johannes Brahms is considered a restorer of German chamber music and the one who gave it its shape in the second half of the 19th century. His works constitute a point of reference without which it is difficult to imagine a chamber music festival or concert series. It is similarly difficult to think seriously about a violin repertoire devoid of his sonatas, even if the composer himself called them “sonatas for piano and violin”. The intention here is not to push the violin away to the background, but rather to emphasise the piano being a full partner in the duo. Thus, the creation of this unique, intimate dialogue and the construction of the consistent form that will eventually appear to the listener as a complete (master)piece require two artists. This evening, a fresh artistic perspective is guaranteed thanks to the participation of two exceptional instrumentalists who are also composers themselves, which gives them their own sense of narrative and meaning in music. This will be their Brahms. Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration: approximately 70 minutes

Shakespeare of Music

Shakespeare of Music

Shakespeare of Music

NOSPR Chamber Musicians / Hindemith / Britten / Music as light as a feather

Paul Hindemith is among the most underrated artists of the 20th century. Anyone who listens to his Kammermusik, op. 24 no. 1, a genuinely sparkling with ideas and light as a feather piece of music, will come to this conclusion. This architect of the cornerstone of historical performance and founding father of the famous Donaueschingen Contemporary Music Festival embodied the dominant ideals of the New Objectivity in German art of the 1920s, namely simplicity of means and communicativeness, in his Chamber Music series. It is a peculiar variety of neo-classicism, unjustly overshadowed by French or Russian music. The third movement in Kammermusik (op. 36 no. 3) is essentially a chamber cello concerto with explicit references to Baroque music. It is not without reason, after all, that this entire series has been compared to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. Surprisingly similar in its spirit tone, although referring to the classical form and not devoid of stronger emotional accents, is the Sinfonietta of the then-only 18-year-old Benjamin Britten, already heralding his extraordinary talent. Adam SuprynowiczConcert duration: approximately 70 minutes

Arditti Quartet / The quartet and modern masterpieces / cancelled

The Arditti Quartet is a chamber music legend. Half a century ago, the violinist Irvine Arditti invited three friends of his, students at London’s Royal Academy of Music, to perform Krzysztof Penderecki’s String quartet No. 2 together. Since then, the ensemble has premiered hundreds of contemporary pieces, released over 200 albums and traveled all the world with new music. The Arditti Quartet will perform a 20th-century masterpiece by Witold Lutosławski, music by Lucia Dlugoszewski, an American composer with Polish roots who is still little known here, and a piece by James Dillon, the quartet’s collaborator since the 80s. Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration: approximately 100 minutes