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NOSPR / Berglund / In the Hall of the Mountain King

With song, he delved into the abyss, To the bottom of the world’s beginning– Kalevala, ed. Elias Lönnrot Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius are not only prominent representatives of late Romanticism, but also captivating storytellers and guides among the myths and tales of the Northern nations. In their works, legends emerging from the darkness of the past are painted with vivid colours and become filled with a modern emotionality. Slightly older of the two, Edvard Grieg, born to a family... Read full text

Keywords: Subscription Concert, Symphony Concert

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Musicians

Tabita BerglundConductor
NOSPR

Program

Suite in Olden Style From Holberg’s Time, Op. 40Edvard Grieg
The Swan of Tuonela, Lemminkäinen’s Return from Lemminkäinen Suite, Op. 22Jean Sibelius
Peer Gynt, Op. 46, suite No. 1Edvard Grieg
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Last update: Fri, Nov 22, 2024, 12:16

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NOSPR / Runtz / In the Mediterranean sun

Sun, Oct 20, 2024, 12:00
Dawid Runtz (Conductor), NOSPR, Ewa Jabłczyńska (Guitar), Dariusz Kupiński (Guitar), Marcin Dylla (Guitar), Justyna Sobczak-Dylla (Guitar)
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
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NOSPR / Alsop / Sumino / Inauguration of the season 2024/2025

Fri, Oct 4, 2024, 19:30
Marin Alsop (Conductor), NOSPR, Hayato Sumino (Piano)
We invite you to a live broadcast of the concert on Polish Radio 2.Samuel Barber began composing the Symphony No. 1 in1935, at the age of twenty-five. At the end of 1942 and at the beginning of 1943, he made significant amendments to the score, eventually to dedicate it to Gian Carlo Menotti – his university friend and later life partner. Commenting on this symphonic debut, he admitted that the intention behind it was a polemical dialogue with the classical tradition: „The form of my Symphony in One Movement is a synthetic treatment of the four-movement classical symphony. It is based on three themes of the initial Allegro non troppo, which retain throughout the work their fundamental character.”The concept of the Concertino by the twenty-nine-year-old Władysław Szpilman– that of a single-movement “small concerto” – is similarly untypical. His first and only composition for piano with orchestra was created in the Warsaw ghetto in 1940. Hence the “compactness” of the form. The graceful character, references to jazz and subtle allusions to Chopin permeate the melodies and harmonic language of the Concertino, showing Szpilman as akin to Prometheus, one who brings light into the darkest places of human despair and sorrow.In the case of the forty-year-old Johannes Brahms, one could call his Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a, a “protodebut”. The story of how long Brahms, filled with doubt, was preparing for his Symphony No. 1 (1876), is one of the most frequently discussed aspects of his biography. The 1873 Variations are a significant step in this process. They constitute a prototype of the symphonic idea and texture, and simultaneously a tribute and a token of admiration for the author of TheCreation of the World. „He was quite someone!” was how Brahms wrote about Haydn a year before his own death. “Oh, how pitiful are we against someone like him!”With his Rhapsody in Blue (1924), today, Gershwin is an iconic figure, standing like the Colossus of Rhodes, towering over the borderline between two orders – those of classical music and jazz. However, when the twenty-six-year-old was entering the conservative realm of American concert halls with his slightly nonchalant Broadway gait, he was crossing a line no one had ignored in such an ostentatious manner before. Paul Whiteman organised the Experiment in Modern Music concert in order to prove that the relatively new form of music called jazz deserved being recognised as a serious and sophisticated form of art. The Rhapsody proved that being first and brave is worth the risk!Andrzej SułekConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes
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NOSPR / Hermus / Great symphonists and The Master-Singers of Nuremberg

Fri, Dec 6, 2024, 19:30
Antony Hermus (Conductor), NOSPR
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NOSPR / Alsop / Yang / Polish sonorism and music of the north

Fri, Jan 17, 2025, 19:30
Marin Alsop (Conductor), NOSPR, Inmo Yang (Violin)
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
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NOSPR / Jackson / Ciepliński / At the singular garden of cosmic speculation

Sun, May 25, 2025, 12:00
Laura Jackson (Conductor), NOSPR, Andrzej Ciepliński (Clarinet)
In her Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres for orchestra (2014), the American composer and pianist Missy Mazzoli offers spectacular sonic effects. The word „sinfonia” carries is widely associated with the times of Vivaldi and Bach – and rightly so, as there is no dearth of Baroque decoration, ornamentation and stylistic inspiration to be found here. The sonic cloak draped over those rich garments is, however, quite modern. Strings and harmonicas create stained-glass-like loops, the vibraphone lightens the sound, lending it a dancing tone. The orchestral sun rises fast and shines bright.Aaron Copland’s Concerto for clarinet, string orchestra, harp and piano (1948) also glimmers with a blaze of colour. The master’s specific signum, which is bringing together superficially distant styles and techniques (neoclassicism, Mahler’s symphony, jazz and dodecaphony), found its full expression here, while the very first melody of the clarinet makes it clear that Copland is a lyrical poet of sound. This eclecticism, so specific for his music, was transferred to further generations of American composers – and it was in such a convention that Michael Gandolfi designed The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (2004), orchestral piece inspired by the cosmological garden established in Scotland by the landscape architect Charles Jencks and his wife Maggie. Just like at the Jencks’, Gandolfi also offers a multi-coloured space and secrets of the universe coded in moving segments. “It seemed proper for music to participate in this magnificent joining of physics and architecture,” writes the composer about his spectacular opus.Maria Wilczek-Krupa
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NOSPR / Alsop / Lewis / Lovers’ adventures in antiquity

Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 19:30
Marin Alsop (Conductor), NOSPR, Paul Lewis (Piano)
From the precision of classical drawing to a blaze of orchestral colours. The concert begins with the Introduction and Capriccio by Grażyna Bacewicz, a post-war neoclassical diptych awarded an honourable mention at the Karol Szymanowski Competition. Later, there comes Beethoven from his Promethean period – that of searching for new routes of formal development and means of musical expression. His Piano Concerto No. 4 is already astonishing at the very beginning, with the lonely meditative piano. It is in the intimate dialogues of the middle Andante, however,that some seek the metaphysical. Romanticists found it in the character of Orpheo, begging the Furies to give his lover back to him. It is worth finding out where today’s interpretations lead us.We are bound not to be disappointed by Richard Strauss in his quasi-slapstick tale of a picaresque folk hero. After a series of bravado-filled adventures, his Till Eulenspiegel will try to dupe death once again. Will his trick work this time as well? The final feast for the senses will be served by Maurice Ravel, illustrating Longus’ idyll with the colours of pastoral love in the second one of the orchestral suites from his Daphnis and Chloé. This will be framed with what is probably the most famous picture of dawn known in the history of music and the final bacchanalia crowning the lovers’ adventures in antiquity.Róża ŚwiatczyńskaConcert duration: approximately 100 minutes
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NOSPR / Klauza / Nizioł / The American Dream

Fri, Apr 4, 2025, 19:30
Michał Klauza (Conductor), NOSPR, Bartłomiej Nizioł (Violin)
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
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The Wedding of the Sun King

Fri, Jan 17, 2025, 20:00
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
Le Poème Harmonique (Choir), Le Poème Harmonique (Orchestra), Ana Quintans (Soprano), Isabelle Druet (Mezzo-Soprano), Paco Garcia (Tenor), Serge Goubioud (Tenor), Viktor Shapovalov (Bariton), Vincent Dumestre (Theorbo), Vincent Dumestre (Director)
Probably France’s largest 17th century festival comes to life again here: the wedding between the »Sun King« Louis XIV and the Spanish princess Marie-Thérèse ended the long-standing hostility of both countries in 1660 and was fittingly ostentatiously celebrated, firstly on the Spanish border, then in Paris. Thereby, a large-scale musical setting befitting their social status from sacred works via fanfares to dance and opera should also be included. Vincent Dumestre, with his period performance orchestra Le Poème Harmonique and vocalists, has put together a splendid panorama of French baroque music, which transforms the entire Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall into a royal ballroom. The proverbial timpani and trumpets sound, there is a lot of music by Jean-Baptiste Lully – Louis XIV’s favourite composer – and by Francesco Cavalli, who travelled from Italy to Paris for the wedding specifically for performances of his operas. This programme incidentally evolved from Dumestre and his ensembles for the Palace of Versailles, which the Sun King had built as an overflowing, sumptuous structure – also to make space for the theatre, ballet and opera performances he so loved. Today, the stars of the early music scene take golden hammers into their hands here and sound repertoire gems of the 16th to 18th century.
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NOSPR / Webster / The Fun-Fair and the Moonrise Kingdom

Sun, Feb 23, 2025, 12:00
Angus Webster (Conductor), NOSPR
If Dvořák, Kisielewski and Britten could meet – would they find a common language? Certainly so, only that would be neither Czech, nor Polish, nor English, but the language of humour and classical proportions.The Carnival Overture is its composer’s declaration of faith in the vital power of ethnic music. Remarkably, it is the central part of the “Nature – Life – Love” trilogy. Dvořák did not approach folk themes with a scholarly studiosity. Instead, seeking inspiration in their rhythms and melodies, he created an exuberant vision of his homeland’s folklore. The Slavic pulse in Dvořák’s work was so strong that it forced its way into scores, even when, having crossed the Atlantic, the composer decided to write national music for the Americans – this might be the reason why the Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” seems to resonate with Prague nostalgia more than with echoes of the prairies. Humour is probably the most important aesthetic value in music composed by the erudite, author and politician, Stefan Kisielewski. Similarly to Dvořák, while drawing from ethnic traditions, the Polish composer also carefully listened to town life: both the sounds of its fairs and its everyday rhythm. The Fun-Fair, self-identifying in its subtitle as a single-act ballet with prologue, paints a sonic cityscape within a neoclassical framework.Benjamin Britten’s works also show an unshakable faith in the power of musical tradition. There is no dearth of tributes to the Englishman’s excellent predecessors in his oeuvre, one of the most beautiful testimonies to his faith in the heritage of British culture being The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. The piece is a cycle of variations on a very short theme from Abdelazer by the Baroque master Henry Purcell. The promise made in the title of the work is fulfilled in a pedantic presentation of each section of the orchestra and every family of instruments. The whole is intricate enough to have proven worthy of a prologue to one of Wes Anderson’s films (Moonrise Kingdom, 2012).Krzysztof SiwońConcert duration: approximately 60 minutes
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NOSPR / Bayona / de la Salle / Great history and the joy of music-making

Sun, Nov 17, 2024, 12:00
Néstor Bayona (Conductor), NOSPR, Lise de la Salle (Piano)
„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