Symphonic Concert

Date & Time

Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 18:00

Venue

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Łukasz Borowicz, photo: Ksawery Zamoyski As he stated years ago, Emanuel Ax prefers concerts to competitions. Although he took part in numerous piano competitions in his youth, he decided to consistently refuse to serve on competition juries, as he was terrified of having to eliminate participants. He comes from a Jewish family with Polish roots. He was born in Lviv, and attended his first music school on Miodowa Street in Warsaw, before continuing his studies at the famous Juilliard School... Read full text

Keywords: Symphony Concert, online streaming

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Musicians

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir
Łukasz Borowicz	Conductor
Emanuel Ax	Piano
Bartosz Michałowski	Chorus Director

Program

Schwanensang, Op. 11 for mixed choir and orchestra (first Polish performace)	Franz Schreker
Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19	Karol Szymanowski
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73	Ludwig van Beethoven

Give feedback

Last update: Sat, Dec 7, 2024, 14:02

Similar events

These events are similar in terms of concept, place, musicians or the program.

Symphonic Concert

Sat, Apr 26, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Anna Sułkowska-Migoń (Conductor), Andrzej Ciepliński (Clarinet), Bartosz Michałowski (Chorus Director)

Anna Sułkowska-Migoń, photo: Joanna Gałuszka The contemplative nature of much of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s work is said to stem from his love of poetry. After his teacher introduced him to the visionary work of Walt Whitman, the collection Leaves of Grass became the composer’s ‘constant companion’ and the inspiration for Toward the Unknown Region, a song for choir and orchestra first performed in Leeds in 1907. One critic at the time hailed Williams as the leading British composer of the new generation. Futurist poetry, meanwhile, would suit the character of Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto. This work reveals the complex nature of the instrument, which, according to the composer, ‘can be at the same time warm-hearted and completely hysterical, as mild as balsam, and screaming like a tram-car on poorly-greased rails’. Having befriended the members of the Copenhagen Brass Quintet, he wished to compose a musical portrait for each of them, in the form of a solo concerto. Perhaps it was the broad phrases of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s symphonic writing that led observers to associate many of his works with the landscapes of the countries he visited. His Symphony No. 3 in A minor, for example, supposedly evokes the dense fog-shrouded mountain landscapes of Scotland, which the composer visited in 1829. Yet the composer himself did not refer to such inspirations after completing the long journey of several years to completing this work, which received its Scottish nickname from well-meaning listeners.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Symphonic Concert

Sat, May 24, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Christoph König (Conductor)

Christoph König, photo: Christian Wind Who doesn’t like riddles? The history of music is full of them. Suffice it to mention mediaeval and Renaissance canons or Baroque rhetorical figures hidden on various levels of a score. There are also musical-philosophical puzzles for which there is no simple solution. Perhaps this kind of test was what Gustav Mahler had in mind when he wrote in a letter to an Austrian writer and musicologist: ‘My Sixth will pose riddles that only a generation that has absorbed and digested my first five symphonies may hope to solve’. Seemingly classical, in four movements, it is a monumental symphony in every respect. Written for the largest ensemble of the composer’s purely instrumental works, the Symphony No. 6 in A minor demands huge commitment from the performers and conductor, but does not spare the listener in any respect either. We do not find here too many of the catchy melodies familiar from Mahler’s previous works. There is another unsolved riddle associated with this work, concerning the order in which the movements should be played. Originally, the gloomy first movement was to be followed by the frenzied Scherzo and then the melancholic Andante moderato. However, the score published on the basis of the version from the first performance had the two inner movements switched by the composer. It was only after Mahler’s death that his wife Alma pointed out that the original order was correct!

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Closing Concert in the 2024/2025 Season

Sat, Jun 14, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Krzysztof Urbański (Conductor), Sophia Brommer (Soprano), Sophie Harmsen (Mezzo-Soprano), Martin Platz (Tenor), Andrew Moore (Bass-Bariton), Bartosz Michałowski (Chorus Director)

Krzysztof Urbański, photo: Marco Borggreve Ludwig van Beethoven was regarded as a revolutionary (but also an eccentric) in his time, while for subsequent generations he became the epitome of the Classical (and, for many, of what was finest in music). The turbulent reception history of his monumental Symphony No. 9 in D minor proves that the significance of a work is never defined once and for all. It has fascinated not only musicians and listeners with different tastes, but also representatives of different political options and adherents of extreme ideologies. Along the way, it has encountered both nationalism and hope-giving universalism. Today, one of the themes of the Symphony’s finale, considered by some of Beethoven’s contemporaries to be a sign of extravagance, is one of the most recognisable melodies in Western musical culture and is known as the anthem of the European Union.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Symphonic Concert

Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerzy Maksymiuk (Conductor), Karen Gomyo (Violin)

Karen Gomyo, photo: Gabrielle Revere It is generally accepted that short pieces performed at the beginning of symphonic concerts play the role of a kind of overture (even if they are not overtures in the strict sense of the word). What, then, is the function of the composition Ceci n'est pas une ouverture [This is not an overture], written a dozen years ago by Paweł Szymański for the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Polish Composers' Union? Perhaps similar to French surrealist René Magritte’s famous painting signed Ceci n'est pas une pipe, which depicts nothing but a pipe. Szymanski's thrilling piece conjures up the image of a laboratory technician dissecting classical scores in front of an audience in the anatomical theatre he has built. Sergei Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony, on the other hand, provides a fascinating answer to the question of how Joseph Haydn might have composed if a time machine had transported him to the twentieth century. Another great composer writing at the beginning of the last century took an imaginary journey (this time in space). Ibéria, the middle and longest movement in Claude Debussy’s Images cycle, is regarded as one of the great musical evocations of Spain, although the composer was never fated to visit the country. Max Bruch, who was already old at the time, reportedly found it difficult to come to terms with the end of romanticism. His Violin Concerto No. 1, composed while Johannes Brahms was still alive, was so successful that hardly anyone noticed that the German composer had written two others!

Info (filharmonia.pl)

Symphonic Concert

Sat, Nov 9, 2024, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Michał Nesterowicz (Conductor), Seong-Jin Cho (Piano)

Michał Nesterowicz, photo: Łukasz Rajchert He jokingly says that he loves the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall as much as he hates it. He knew it much better than many Polish artists long before he first came to Warsaw. In order to follow the live broadcasts of the Chopin Competition in his country, he had to get up at 3.00 a.m. He longed to one day stand on the stage where Martha Argerich and Kristian Zimmerman won the competition. That dream of performing in Warsaw came true in 2015, when Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho triumphed in the Chopin Competition. He now returns to the capital’s stage as the soloist in Johannes Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major. Brahms used to refer to his powerful work, which posed a considerable challenge for both pianist and orchestra, as a ‘little concerto’. Shortly after the premiere, however, it was more appropriately labelled a ‘symphony with obbligato piano part’. This grand Romantic concerto will be followed by a true Romantic symphony. One of Anton Bruckner’s more popular works, his Fourth Symphony is regarded as one of the finest musical contemplations of nature. Although it does not have a clearly defined literary programme, the composer wove into it the sounds of the morning, the sounds of nature – including the singing of a tit or a mountain echo – and of hunting.

Info (filharmonia.pl)

Symphonic Concert

Fri, Nov 29, 2024, 19:30

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Władysław Skoraczewski Artos Choir at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Maxime Pascal (Conductor), Andrew Staples (Tenor), Judith Chemla (Reciting voice), Bartosz Michałowski (Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir), Danuta Chmurska (Director of the Artos Choir)

Maxime Pascal, photo: Nieto ‘Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside’ – that is the title of the first movement (Allegro non troppo) of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony. As we learn from letters he sent to the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel in 1808, the composer had serious doubts about whether the individual movements of the work should be given names containing such unambiguous pictorial suggestions. In the end, he not only retained them, but found it necessary to include next to the work’s title Pastoral Symphony, or Recollection of Life in the Countryside a caveat in brackets: An expression of feelings rather than painting. The composer’s joy and affirmative attitude to nature – the rustling of leaves, the murmur of streams, the singing of birds, the thunder, lightning and rain all translated into sound in this programmatic work – still leave no one indifferent today, delighting listeners with the deep connection to nature. André Gide’s poetic play Perséphone, written in the spirit of French Parnassianism, is based on a theme taken from Homer’s Hymn to Demeter. The Nobel Prize-winning text caught the attention of the famous dancer Ida Rubinstein, who asked Igor Stravinsky to write music to it. Out of the planned ‘symphonic ballet’ arose a genre combining dance, mime, singing and recitation in an orchestral setting. It was premiered without much fanfare on the stage of the Paris Opera on 30 April 1934. Many years later, Stravinsky's melodrama attracted the interest of many choreographers, including Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Janine Charrat, Martha Graham, and in 2012 Peter Sellars directed this production at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Today, this work is not infrequently performed in a concert version, which the Warsaw Philharmonic ensembles, with renowned artists and the Artos children’s choir, will present on our stage for the first time. Judith Chemla will perform the part of Persephone in Stravinsky's piece, replacing Marina Hands.

Info (filharmonia.pl)

Symphonic Concert

Sat, Nov 30, 2024, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Maxime Pascal, photo: Nieto ‘Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside’ – that is the title of the first movement (Allegro non troppo) of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony. As we learn from letters he sent to the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel in 1808, the composer had serious doubts about whether the individual movements of the work should be given names containing such unambiguous pictorial suggestions. In the end, he not only retained them, but found it necessary to include next to the work’s title Pastoral Symphony, or Recollection of Life in the Countryside a caveat in brackets: An expression of feelings rather than painting. The composer’s joy and affirmative attitude to nature – the rustling of leaves, the murmur of streams, the singing of birds, the thunder, lightning and rain all translated into sound in this programmatic work – still leave no one indifferent today, delighting listeners with the deep connection to nature. André Gide’s poetic play Perséphone, written in the spirit of French Parnassianism, is based on a theme taken from Homer’s Hymn to Demeter. The Nobel Prize-winning text caught the attention of the famous dancer Ida Rubinstein, who asked Igor Stravinsky to write music to it. Out of the planned ‘symphonic ballet’ arose a genre combining dance, mime, singing and recitation in an orchestral setting. It was premiered without much fanfare on the stage of the Paris Opera on 30 April 1934. Many years later, Stravinsky's melodrama attracted the interest of many choreographers, including Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Janine Charrat, Martha Graham, and in 2012 Peter Sellars directed this production at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Today, this work is not infrequently performed in a concert version, which the Warsaw Philharmonic ensembles, with renowned artists and the Artos children’s choir, will present on our stage for the first time. Judith Chemla will perform the part of Persephone in Stravinsky's piece, replacing Marina Hands.

Info (filharmonia.pl)

Symphonic Concert

Thu, Dec 5, 2024, 19:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Volodymyr Sirenko (Conductor)

Volodymyr Sirenko, photo: artist's archive The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, under the baton of its long-standing director, Volodymyr Sirenko, will present a programme based around the idea of national traditions open to cultural dialogue. Born in the Lemko Region (Lemkovyna), Dmytro Bortniansky was one of the most interesting figures linking the musical traditions of Eastern and Western Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. During a decade-long stay in Italy, he wrote the opera Quinto Fabio, about the fate of the ancient hero of the Second Samnite War, staged in Modena in 1778. Contemporary Ukrainian composer Victoria Polevá sought inspiration in both the post-war avant‑garde and religious minimalism. The orchestral poem Langsam (German for ‘slowly’), completed in 1992, is a dialogue with the music of late German romanticism, especially the contemplative symphonic adagios of Gustav Mahler. Poleva’s compatriot Yevhen Stankovych, meanwhile, refers to the ancient polyphony and musical traditions of his homeland. His Ancient Highland Dances of Verkhovyna, in which he alluded to traditional Hutsul music, adhere to the spirit of Bartókian vitalism. One of the finest musical impressions from travels in the United States is Antonín Dvořák’s monumental Symphony No. 9 in E minor ‘From the New World’, Op. 95. In American multiculturalism, the Czech composer saw potential for the musical future.

Info (filharmonia.pl)

Symphonic Concert

Fri, Dec 6, 2024, 19:30

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Alexander Shelley (Conductor)

Alexander Shelley, photo: Curtis Perry For some overshadowed by the Sixth (‘Tragic’), for others drowned out – almost literally – by the next monumental vocal-instrumental ‘Symphony of a Thousand’, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 in E minor was consequently described as an ‘intermezzo’ in the composer’s oeuvre, or even a ‘Cinderella’. Happily, after decades of scorn, the work was recognised as princess material and ranked among the boldest symphonic experiments (or even provocations) of the early twentieth century. After the logical arrangement and clear dramatic structure of the Sixth Symphony (written, incidentally, at the same time as some movements of the Seventh), the composer presented listeners, critics and scholars with a work that defied all expectations, and was also quite cheerful, which did not fit the stereotypical psychological portrait of the melancholic composer. The unusual layout and form of the successive movements, the rich instrumentation and, finally, the return to the night motif that was widely explored in the nineteenth century (two movements were titled Nachtmusik) afforded scope for discussion of the work’s inspirations and hidden programme. The symphony was written in 1904–1905, during summer sojourns in the mountains, and first performed three years later in Prague, during the diamond jubilee celebrations of Emperor Franz Joseph I. It was received very warmly, and the composer himself considered it his best work.

Info (filharmonia.pl)

Symphonic Concert

Sat, Dec 7, 2024, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Alexander Shelley (Conductor)

Alexander Shelley, photo: Curtis Perry For some overshadowed by the Sixth (‘Tragic’), for others drowned out – almost literally – by the next monumental vocal-instrumental ‘Symphony of a Thousand’, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 in E minor was consequently described as an ‘intermezzo’ in the composer’s oeuvre, or even a ‘Cinderella’. Happily, after decades of scorn, the work was recognised as princess material and ranked among the boldest symphonic experiments (or even provocations) of the early twentieth century. After the logical arrangement and clear dramatic structure of the Sixth Symphony (written, incidentally, at the same time as some movements of the Seventh), the composer presented listeners, critics and scholars with a work that defied all expectations, and was also quite cheerful, which did not fit the stereotypical psychological portrait of the melancholic composer. The unusual layout and form of the successive movements, the rich instrumentation and, finally, the return to the night motif that was widely explored in the nineteenth century (two movements were titled Nachtmusik) afforded scope for discussion of the work’s inspirations and hidden programme. The symphony was written in 1904–1905, during summer sojourns in the mountains, and first performed three years later in Prague, during the diamond jubilee celebrations of Emperor Franz Joseph I. It was received very warmly, and the composer himself considered it his best work.

Info (filharmonia.pl)