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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... Read full text

Keywords: Chamber Music, Subscription Concert, Symphony Concert

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Musicians

Maciej TomasiewiczConductor
Łukasz ZimnikFlute
Karolina StalmachowskaOboe
Tomasz ŻymłaClarinet
Krzysztof FiedukiewiczBassoon
Krzysztof TomczykFrench horn
Tomasz HajdaTrombone
Piotr NowakTrumpet
Michał ŻymełkaDrums
Rafał ZambrzyckiViolin
Aleksander DaszkiewiczViolin
Maria ShettyViola
Adam KrzeszowiecCello
Aleksandra BaszakCello
Krzysztof FirlusDouble bass
Piotr SałajczykPiano
Konrad MertaAccordion

Program

Paul HindemithKammermusik for cello and ten instruments, op. 36 no. 3
Benjamin BrittenSinfonietta, op. 1
Paul HindemithKammermusik, op. 24 no. 1
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Last update: Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 23:06

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

Thu, Apr 24, 2025, 19:30
Piotr Tarcholik (Violin), Sulamita Ślubowska (Violin), Kinga Tomaszewska (Violin), Anna Pacholczak (Violin), Beata Raszewska (Viola), Dawid Jadamus (Viola), Łukasz Frant (Cello), Natalia Kurzac-Kotula (Cello)
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
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Fri, Mar 7, 2025, 19:30
Victorien Vanoosten (Conductor), NOSPR, Sarah Traubel (Soprano)
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Thu, Feb 27, 2025, 19:30
Christian Schumann (Conductor), NOSPR, Thomas Zehetmair (Violin)
Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto was created in the ailing composer’s final years and was later considered lost for a long time. Written for the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, it seems permeated with inner struggle and a sense of resignation. The violinist never performed the piece publicly. After Schumann’s suicidal attempt and his confinement to an asylum, where he died after a short time, Joachim deemed the form of the piece to be an expression of its creator’s madness and put it in his drawer forever to remain there. Legend has it, but witnesses also confirm, that eighty years later Robert Schumann appeared to the participants of a seance held in London by Erik Kule Palmstierna, the Envoy of Sweden to the United Kingdom. The spirit ordered Joachim’s great-nieces, the violinists Jelly d’Arányi and Adila Fachiri, who were present at the table, to find and perform the lost piece. Although it was indeed recovered, the concerto was seized by the Nazis, who entrusted Georg Kulenkampff and the Berliner Philharmoniker with premiering it. The concert in Berlin took place in 1937, when Arnold Schönberg had already been forced to emigrate to the United States. His innovative creativity was not understood there, but the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra led by another emigrant, Otton Klemperer, gladly accepted his orchestral arrangement of an early piece by Johannes Brahms – the Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor,Op. 25. Schönberg justified his orchestration of the chamber piece as follows: „1. I like this piece, 2. It is rarely played, 3. It is always played really badly, because the better the pianist, the louder he plays, as a result of which the strings cannot be heard. I wanted to hear everything and I have achieved this.” Do we need a better recommendation?Adam SuprynowiczConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 100 minutes
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Masecki / Markowicz / A fresh look at Brahms’ music

Tue, Oct 1, 2024, 19:30
Marcin Masecki (Piano), Marcin Markowicz (Violin)
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