Details about the performers, repertoire, and ticket sales will be published along with the announcement of the entire festival program.
Keywords: Subscription Concert, Symphony Concert
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These events are similar in terms of concept, place, musicians or the program.
Details about the performers, repertoire, and ticket sales will be published along with the announcement of the entire festival program.
The most joyous one among Gustav Mahler’s symphonies does not, by any means, renounce either the grotesque irony that is so typical for the composer or eschatological threads. Yet again, it deals with the subject of death. This time, however, it is first represented by the grotesque Ländler played by the violin in the scherzo, later to introduce us to the realm of paradise in the finale. But is this true paradise, or rather an image, ironical in its effect, that arises from the naive folk poetry of The Boy’s Magic Horn collection, which the composer uses in his symphonies for the last time?Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 will be preceded by a concert overture, beethovenian in its style, by a Dutch colleague of the Bonn genius, one who introduced both Beethoven’s and Mozart’s music to his fatherland’s stages. No wonder, then, that it was that style exactly that Johann Wilhelm Wilms found inspirational not only for his Overture in D major, but for his symphonies as well. The exceptionally graciously led woodwind instruments remind us of the fact that the composer was also… a professional flutist.Jakub PuchalskiConcert duration: approximately 80 minutes
Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s career spanned two eras – those of classicism and romanticism. As a child and teenager, he studied with Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Later, he befriended Ludwig van Beethoven, and later still the young Fryderyk Chopin, the Polish composer highly valuing his compositions and finding them inspirational for his own early work. Hummel’s Concerto in E-flat major for the trumpet was composed in 1803, with Anton Weidinger, a Viennese virtuoso of the instrument, in mind. Its premiere in a New Year concert in January 1804 was a celebration of the composer being appointed Konzertmeister to Nikolaus II, Prince Esterházy's estate. The soloist is accompanied by a small orchestra consisting of flutes, clarinets, oboes, horns, timpani and strings. The mood is bright, and the virtuosic parts are suggestively combined with lyrical ones.Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major was composed at the same time as Hummel’s work. Its premiere to place in Vienna in 1800 and the strong impression it made helped its creator reinforce his position among the city’s musicians. Commentators pointed out the work’s innovativeness, which lay in surprising key changes, strong and unexpected rhythmical accents, as well as an increased autonomy of woodwind instruments. Paradoxically, later researchers preferred to emphasise the fact that this early work of Beethoven’s still features, quite naturally for a rather young composer, significant influence of Haydn’s and Mozart’s oeuvres. The truth lies in the middle – this is a work in which achievements of previous generations were creatively transformed by a progressively oriented composer.Oskar ŁapetaConcert duration: approximately 70 minutes
It is not often that we can encounter Balkan folklore in such a spectacular form. Jakov Gotovac’s style is that of late romanticism, but he approaches folk tradition with love. This is why the Serbian kolo can be heard as early as in the first, truculent, chord of the 1927 Symphonic Dance poem. A similar flame is what characterizes the extreme movements of the Concierto andaluz for four guitars and orchestra by Joaquin Rodrigo, although the heart of this piece beats to the rhythm of the Spanish bolero. The dance is not a fast one, but it is pugnacious and lively. The central Adagio brings to mind images of the South – those who know Andalusia will hear the smell of olive groves and see the azure waves reflecting the Mediterranean sun. That was how the blind marqués de los Jardines de Aranjuez heard his fatherland in 1967.It is also under the Spanish sky that the finale of the symphonic evening, contained within the sounds of the ballet suite from Jules Massenet’s grand opera Le Cid, will take place. Seventeenth-century France was impressed by Pierre Corneille’s play about the medieval Castilian knight – similar success was achieved 200 years later by Massenet’s piece based on it (after the 1885 premiere, the opera was performed for 50 consecutive evenings. It was from Corneille and Massenet that the French took the famous and apt phrase: “beautiful like The Cid”.Maria Wilczek-KrupaConcert duration: approximately 70 minutes
For most of the 19th century, the French romanticism was seeking a way of its own, trying not to fall within the orbit of German influence – César Franck, however, eventually preferred to yield to the inspiration to be found in those, simultaneously finding a voice of his own in the Symphony in D minor. It was, of course, characterised by a high density of harmony, but also by refined and gripping themes, as well as a specific melancholy and an unusual multiplicity of timbres in a sonically opulent orchestra. Thus, he created a work perceived as one of the most excellent symphonies of the century.Gabriel Fauré belongs to the next generation already, one turning towards the French clarity. This is not yet impressionism, but it is already a music shining with its inner brilliance, esoteric and ethereal, and at the same time infinitely subtle and elegant. There is also a gentle glow, that of the soft and warm autumn sun, to be found in his Requiem, exceptional in the whole history of music. This mass for the dead originated as a mass indeed: for the liturgies in the church that Fauré played the organ and gave concerts in. The terror of death turns into what is more like nostalgic reflection, looking into the netherworld with bright eyes, not expecting any shock whatsoever.Jakub PuchalskiConcert duration: approximately 100 minutes
The (co)creators of the works to be presented in this concert share an American connection. Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, written for the organ, was arranged for an orchestra by the exquisite conductor Leopold Stokowski, who spent most of his life in the United States, leading such ensembles as the famous Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1940, it was with them that he recorded the soundtrack for Walt Disney’s Fantasia, which has since become a legend, having prepared the symphonic version of the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor for this purpose in particular (he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his achievements). Allegedly – due to the similarity of their surnames – he was often mistaken with Zygmunt Stojowski, who left Europe for the States at the beginning of the 20th century and remained there until his death in 1946. On the other side of the pond, the latter was chair of the piano department at the New York Institute of Musical Art, also teaching at the Von Ende School of Music. The Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 22, is an early composition of his, created at the end of the 19th century. Unusually expressive, it is imbued with the Romantic spirit, its violin part glimmering with brilliant virtuosity. Henryk Wars – known in the States as Henry Vars – is predominantly recognised in his homeland as a pioneer of Polish jazz, composer of film music, and author of such smash hits as Miłość ci wszystko wybaczy, Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą and Zimny drań. His outstanding symphonic pieces were only discovered in the late 1990s. Among those, there was the exquisite Symphony No. 1 (1949), which blends the late-Romantic sense of drama, flawless instrumentation and a cinematic scope.Agnieszka Nowok-ZychConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes
It is rare for “first” symphonies to be created in a spontaneous rapture of inspiration. The creative process may last more than a dozen years. Sometimes it is only the “second” that becomes the “first”, and at other times it only takes its final shape after emerging from a formal ambiguity. The one to blame for all this is the author of the “Eroica”, who set the bar so high that it is difficult for his successors to get rid of the Beethovenian complex.Grażyna Bacewicz had already composed her “first” Symphony No. 1 before the war. Nonetheless, dissatisfied with the result, she “renounced” that child of hers and did not enter it into the official catalogue of works. She returned to the symphonic form in 1945, creating a four-movement neoclassical work marked by the wartime trauma. It was this symphony that she eventually gave the official number one. In spite of the fact that the work was performed by a Cracow symphony, however, she decided against publishing it.Mahler was twenty-eight years old when he finished the Symphony No. 1 and titled it Titan, thus referencing a novel by Jean Paul, a prophet of Romantic literature. Seeking a form capable of accommodating all the compositional ideas which crowded his mind, he must have experienced much more quandaries than the Polish composer did. He spent a long time adjusting the form and defining the genre for his Symphony No. 1. He hesitated between various shades and incarnations of the wide-spanning form of tone poem, alternately adding and removing the literary programme.The piece, which Mahler presented for the first time in Budapest on 20th November 1889, was introduced as A tone poem in two parts, the first part encompassing three movements of the cycle, and the second one encompassing two of them. Mahler lent them a full spectrum of emotional shades – from subjective and philosophical ones, to grotesque folklore. He initially gave each movement a programme title, only to remove those later. Thus, as a symphonist, he took the side of absolute music. After reducing the cycle to four movements, he defined his piece as Titan, a tone poem in symphonic form, in order to eventually announce, to himself and to the world, what a symphony is, and to redefine the term.Andrzej SułekConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 100 minutes
“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
This year, two hundred years from the premiere of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, it is worth remembering the Name Day Overture. Initially, it was intended to contain a choir part with the text of Schiller’s Ode to Joy. The final result turned out to be different, yet no less interesting. All the more so, since the background for the piece is to be found in the name day of Emperor Francis I and II and its dedication is one for Prince Antoni Radziwiłł. It is quite a different story with Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major. It is a popular piece, permanently present in the repertoire, though probably less frequently played than the Concerto in C major. Equally technically challenging and equally virtuosic, but more dreamy and melancholic, its narrative flowing lightly at a leisurely pace. Haydn’s melodies are easy to remember and not easy to forget, just like the theme from a Polish folk song quoted by Panufnik in his Lullaby, a virtuosic piece using quartertones. „A gem of talent, technique and taste” – that was how Stefan Kisielewski marvelled at the composition. Martinů’s Symphony No. 6, which the composer himself called Symphonic Fantasies,might seem both moving and surprising. It brings together modern oniric sounds and distinct neoclassical elements. „It is a work without form, and yet something holds it together, though I do not know what it is,” Martinů admitted openly. One may seek this “something” on one’s own, letting oneself be captivated by this music created by a Czech master who is still to find recognition in Poland.Piotr MatwiejczukConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes
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