Music of mindfulness. Hypnotising and transcendental

Shakespeare of Music

Shakespeare of Music

Shakespeare of Music

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

Music of the Vasa times

Members of the House of Vasa were generous patrons of the arts, with music standing in particularly high favour among them. Under their rule, the Polish court became a melting pot of Polish culture and foreign influence. Italian musicians, whose significance was crucial for the development of baroque music, found an important place at the court of the Vasas, Polish music thus accepting forms and stylistics popular in other parts on Europe. Among the numerous musicians present (singers and instrumentalists), a special position belonged to Bartłomiej Pękiel, maestro di cappella of the Wawel cathedral. It was his oeuvre that proved most inspirational for the Polish Radio Choir, now located in Lusławice, to popularise works by the outstanding masters of the early 17th century with ties to the Vasa court. Alongside pieces by Bartłomiej Pękiel, we are also going to hear compositions by the Italian masters: Asprilio Pacelli, Annibale Orgas, Luzzascho Luzzaschi, and Girolamo Frescobaldi, which situate the works of the exceptional Polish composer in a broader context of the European musical heritage of early baroque. Furthermore, the programme of the concert includes works from the “Album Sapieżyńskie”, an early 17th-century collection of short pieces for the organ, the unique binding of which is an artifact of particular significance both in the history of music and of bookbinding.

NOSPR / Alsop / Yang / Polish sonorism and music of the north

Although Sibelius’ Violin Concerto is not programmatic music, it is permeated by the same Northern colour and breadth of breath that can be found in nearly all works by the creator of Finlandia. This is because landscape is not present there merely as a decoration – as it was in 18th-century music – but to reflect the scenery of the soul. Part of the core violinistic repertoire, enclosed within the framework of classical form, for over a hundred years, the piece has not ceased to inspire a sense of wonder, not only with its mysterious atmosphere and richness of sound, but also with its symphonic elan and originality of themes. While the British musicologist Donald Tovey called the final movement of the Concerto a “polonaise for polar bears”, he granted it – and rightly so! – an honourable place among the greatest violin concertos of Romanticism. Another great classic of 20th-century music is Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, in which – as Alex Ross put it – the Hungarian composer and folklore researcher “decided to throw away his notebook and began dancing with them [peasants]. From the strings, there rise clouds of dust, setting on the feet of the frenzied dancers.”. While the musical language of this late work of Bartok’s is a softened one, its form is classicising, and the sounds are nearly euphonic, still what is the most important for his style was retained – distinct rhythms, colourful instrumentation, and subtle inspiration drawn from folklore. Piotr MatwiejczukConcert duration: approximately 110 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

NOSPR / Bayona / de la Salle / Great history and the joy of music-making

„Manuscripts don’t burn” – claimed a character of Bulgakov’s. Could Andrzej Panufnik feel that when composing his Tragic Overture in the occupied Warsaw? He intended to escape from the circumstances of the day, heading towards the sphere of sonic abstraction. And yet, in the imitative instrumental parts, dramatic to the point of feeling obsessive, echoes of the war can be heard on and on. The score survived the occupation, though it almost fell prey to the tenants who took over the composer’s Warsaw apartment and had a penchant for using sheet music as fuel for their stove. The Tragic Overture is one of those works that history itself uses as a medium to speak through. Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is also a priceless treasure. If we converted the time it took to compose it into its duration time, we would learn that the master of Romantic melodics was writing at a pace of less than a minute per year! This time-consuming process bridged youthful emotionality and a clear outlook on the form – crystallising over 26 years. The Weimar premiere of the piece was conducted by none other than Hector Berlioz, who called himself „Beethoven’s crescendo”, with audiences’ idol – Franz Liszt – on the piano. In the Katowice concert, the solo part will be performed by Sergio Tiempo, whose pianistic fame guarantees experiences of not only emotional, but also intellectual nature. The orchestra will be led by Néstor Bayona, NOSPR’s conductor in residence. Morton Gould’s music undoubtedly belongs to the world of Dionysian values. Spirituals for orchestra is a hymn celebrating the American roots. Composed in mid-twentieth century, the music beams with unpretentious joy, flowing straight from its ethnic sources. Gould’s inspiration was not only Baptist church music, but also the “carnival” joy of music-making, which lends the piece a mood of musical celebration. Krzysztof SiwońConcert duration: approximately 60 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

NOSPR / Hermus / Great symphonists and The Master-Singers of Nuremberg

If The Master-Singers of Nuremberg were stripped of their stage design and historical setting, they could constitute a metaphor of perfect order in the musical (though not only) world: the winner of the competition for the most beautiful song and its best performance would be the best and the most talented participant and the ambitious mediocre one would suffer a well-deserved defeat. In such a world, the following question would become an abstract and groundless one: why have Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s Three Dances, Op. 34, not found their rightful place in the concert repertoire? Why is this work – chronologically placed halfway between Symphony No. 2 and No. 3, surprising, brilliant, written with a particular flair for timbre and expression – performed so rarely? Nonetheless, in real life, Walter’s love song does not shine in a blaze of glory at first, while the talentless Beckmesser will still trumpet his clerkish shallowness before he finally loses.Usually, however, it is the greatness of vision that wins. Such was the Wagnerian vision, which changed the course of history. Without his orchestral language, Bruckner’s, Mahler’s and Richard Strauss’ oeuvres would certainly be different from those we know today.In his Gesamtkunstwerk, Wagner lent an increasingly greater weight to the orchestra. The instrumental layer ceases to be merely a helpful scaffolding for the vocal show, beginning to explain and add to the drama happening onstage. The furthest he ever ventured away from the academic thinking about form was in the prelude to the Lohengrin (1848). In the prelude to the 1862 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Wagner decided to build a classically structured score. In a sophisticated manner, he brings together motifs taken from the operatic plot, referencing its heroes and crucial moments, simultaneously creating a score of unusual brilliance and elan, a concert masterpiece.Even though Bruckner admired Wagner, the path his symphonies open up for us is one leading to a radically different sphere of artistic expression – a sphere marked by patience and humility, but also by self-destructive uncertainty. In this Brucknerian world, The Sixth is truly exceptional. The least frequently performed, it does not belong to any period – while being the only one never amended by the composer, it also separates the “early” part of his symphonic universe from the “late” works. Amidst contrasting moods and motifs, the meandering harmonies, complicated rhythms and an orchestration fueled by an unrestrained imagination lead from darkness to light.Andrzej SułekConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 100 minutes