Classical Concerts at
Filharmonia Narodowa

Overview

Quick overview of Filharmonia Narodowa by associated keywords

Upcoming Concerts

Concerts at Filharmonia Narodowa in season 2024/25 or later

In a few days

In Warszawa

Symphonic Concert

Fri, Mar 14, 2025, 19:30

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Matthew Halls (Conductor)

Mathew Halls, photo: Benjamin Ealovega The final bar of Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 in C major has been compared by conductor Colin Davis to the closing of a coffin lid. Although the great Finn still had more than 30 years to live after it was written, it is one of his last completed works. The unusual one-movement form of the work, which was originally to be titled ‘Fantasia Sinfonica’, has become an interpretative challenge for critics and analysts. While unanimously describing the work as revolutionary, scholars have differed in the justifications for their judgement. Benjamin Britten’s dark opera Peter Grimes, which tells the story of a fisherman suspected of murdering a young journeyman, contains highly successful orchestral interludes which, in a slightly altered order and with minor alterations, were successfully published separately as Four Sea Interludes shortly after the opera’s premiere in 1945. They consist of ‘Dawn’, an illustration of a calm sea, ‘Sunday Morning’, with the sound of tolling church bells imitated by horn, the majestic nocturne ‘Moonlight’ and the deathly terrifying ‘Tempest’. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony was received less warmly than the Seventh, because, as the offended composer was to comment, ‘the Eighth is better’. Beethoven undoubtedly put more work into it than into its predecessor, as the surviving sketches testify. Performed for the first time under the baton of its increasingly hard-of-hearing composer in Vienna in 1814, it was not dedicated to anyone, perhaps due to its cool reception.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This week

In Warszawa

Symphonic Concert

Sat, Mar 15, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Matthew Halls (Conductor)

Mathew Halls, photo: Benjamin Ealovega The final bar of Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 in C major has been compared by conductor Colin Davis to the closing of a coffin lid. Although the great Finn still had more than 30 years to live after it was written, it is one of his last completed works. The unusual one-movement form of the work, which was originally to be titled ‘Fantasia Sinfonica’, has become an interpretative challenge for critics and analysts. While unanimously describing the work as revolutionary, scholars have differed in the justifications for their judgement. Benjamin Britten’s dark opera Peter Grimes, which tells the story of a fisherman suspected of murdering a young journeyman, contains highly successful orchestral interludes which, in a slightly altered order and with minor alterations, were successfully published separately as Four Sea Interludes shortly after the opera’s premiere in 1945. They consist of ‘Dawn’, an illustration of a calm sea, ‘Sunday Morning’, with the sound of tolling church bells imitated by horn, the majestic nocturne ‘Moonlight’ and the deathly terrifying ‘Tempest’. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony was received less warmly than the Seventh, because, as the offended composer was to comment, ‘the Eighth is better’. Beethoven undoubtedly put more work into it than into its predecessor, as the surviving sketches testify. Performed for the first time under the baton of its increasingly hard-of-hearing composer in Vienna in 1814, it was not dedicated to anyone, perhaps due to its cool reception.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next week

In Warszawa

A Clay Vase

Sun, Mar 16, 2025, 11:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Bartosz Michałowski (Conductor), Bartosz Michałowski (Chorus Director), Trio Legend, Agnieszka Zahaczewska-Książek (Piano), Krzysztof Katana (Violin), Monika Krasicka-Gajownik (Cello), Agata Kawełczyk-Starosta (Presenter)

Among FeNek’s clutter, there’s an old clay vase. Just an ordinary vase, slightly dusty, a family heirloom... but don’t let that fool you! It’s not ordinary at all. Whenever music is played in the Concert Hall, wavy patterns always appear on it. A long line flashes when violinists draw their bows, tiny dots appear when a pianist’s fingers make a tinkling sound, or a little mouse flits by as a choir sings about it. The patterns and shapes change as quickly as the colourful sounds in the music. If you’re curious to find out what other secrets the clay vase holds, come to the concert at the Philharmonic, and don’t forget to bring a sheet of paper and a colourful marker. Bring to the concert… a sheet of paper and a colourful marker

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next week

In Warszawa

A Clay Vase

Sun, Mar 16, 2025, 14:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Among FeNek’s clutter, there’s an old clay vase. Just an ordinary vase, slightly dusty, a family heirloom... but don’t let that fool you! It’s not ordinary at all. Whenever music is played in the Concert Hall, wavy patterns always appear on it. A long line flashes when violinists draw their bows, tiny dots appear when a pianist’s fingers make a tinkling sound, or a little mouse flits by as a choir sings about it. The patterns and shapes change as quickly as the colourful sounds in the music. If you’re curious to find out what other secrets the clay vase holds, come to the concert at the Philharmonic, and don’t forget to bring a sheet of paper and a colourful marker. Bring to the concert… a sheet of paper and a colourful marker

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next week

In Warszawa

Simply... Philharmonic!4: André Lislevand, Kore Orchestra

Tue, Mar 18, 2025, 19:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Chamber Music Hall (Warszawa)

André Lislevand (Viola da gamba), Kore Orchestra, Joanna Boślak-Górniok (Harpsichord), Joanna Boślak-Górniok (Art Director)

André Lislevand, photo: Cezary Zych; Orkiestra Kore, photo: Grzesiek Mart According to eighteenth-century accounts, the French violinist Jean-Baptiste Volumier, as concertmaster of the Dresden court orchestra, turned it into one of the best ensembles in Europe. After Volumier’s death in 1728, the position of concertmaster was taken over by violin virtuoso Johann Georg Pisendel. Before obtaining this position, Pisendel had developed his violin skills partly in Venice, where he studied with and befriended Antonio Vivaldi. Their friendship resulted in mutual dedications of works, as well as Pisendel’s transcribing of Vivaldi’s compositions. He also transcribed works by other composers, such as Francesco Geminiani, whose Concerto Grosso, Op. 2 No. 2 he arranged as a Sonata à quattro. Pisendel’s talent was also appreciated by other composers (including Tomaso Albinoni), who dedicated works to Pisendel. He also passed on his outstanding skills as a teacher, and one of his most famous pupils was Johann Gottlieb Graun, composer of virtuoso concertos for viola da gamba that were also influenced by great virtuosos and were composed with the outstanding gambist Ludwig Christian Hesse in mind. Hesse, in turn, probably learned to play the gamba from his own father, Ernst Christian, who had previously studied in Paris with Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray. Simply… Philharmonic! Project 4: If one were to assign a specific instrument to each country of particular importance on the musical scene of Baroque Europe, the viola da gamba would certainly fall to France. Such an attempt to find national connections to instruments was also made by the eighteenth-century gambist Hubert Le Blanc, who opened his treatise on the instrument with the statement: The Divine Intelligence, among its many gifts, has endowed mortals with Harmony. The violin fell to the Italians, the flute to the Germans, the harpsichord to the English, and the basse de viole to the French. Although the roots of the French school of gamba playing can be traced to England (the first chordal compositions were written there, and the English are credited with popularising the instrument on the Continent), it was in France that some of the instrument’s greatest virtuosos worked and its construction was perfected. Foreign musicians also trained in France, such as the German gambist Ernst Christian Hesse. One instrument related to the viola da gamba is the lute, and works for lute were taken as models for gamba compositions by Antoine Forqueray, among others, a musician contemporary of Marin Marais. In their time, the eminent lute player, theorist and guitarist Robert de Visée, who was also a gamba player, worked in the ensemble of King Louis XIV at Versailles, as Jean Rousseau mentions in one of his letters. The similarity between the gamba and the lute may also have been noticed by Johann Sebastian Bach, as is suggested by the aria ‘Komm süsses Kreuz’ from the St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, in which the composer envisaged a solo part for viola da gamba. In the original version, however, the solo instrument there was the lute. Daniel Laskowski

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next week

In Warszawa

Simply... Philharmonic!4: André Lislevand, Jadran Duncumb

Wed, Mar 19, 2025, 19:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Chamber Music Hall (Warszawa)

André Lislevand (Viola da gamba), Jadran Duncumb (Lute), Jadran Duncumb (Theorbo)

André Lislevand, photo: Cezary Zych; Jadran Duncumb, photo: Jørn Pedersen In the programme: Antoine Forqueray, Marin Marais, Robert de Visée French gambist Hubert Le Blanc, noting in the mid-eighteenth century the declining popularity of his instrument and its displacement by the violin and cello, published the treatise Defénse de la basse de viole. In Le Blanc’s view, France was the ‘empire of the viola da gamba’, founded by Marin Marais and later expanded by Antoine Forqueray. However, those two musicians presented a completely different style. According to Le Blanc, Marais resembled an angel with his playing, while Forqueray resembled a devil. Le Blanc also outlined another opposition. He contrasted the melodiousness and tunefulness of the French style, comparing it to poetry, with the Italian style, in which he saw a significant role played by harmony and a musical reflection of prose writing. He regarded Marais as the master of the French style, claiming that his playing surpassed the beauty of singers’ voices. The melodiousness of a work must have been important to Marais, because he consistently avoided performing sonatas in the Italian style. Forqueray, on the contrary, looked for models for his compositions in the harmonic sound of pieces for lute, harp or guitar. His success, however, was based not on a complete rejection of the output of the French, but in its synthesis with the achievements of the Italian style. The ‘Gamba empire’ thus had two pillars at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one of which, to paraphrase Le Blanc, was admired for its beauty and the other for its solidity. Simply… Philharmonic! Project 4: If one were to assign a specific instrument to each country of particular importance on the musical scene of Baroque Europe, the viola da gamba would certainly fall to France. Such an attempt to find national connections to instruments was also made by the eighteenth-century gambist Hubert Le Blanc, who opened his treatise on the instrument with the statement: The Divine Intelligence, among its many gifts, has endowed mortals with Harmony. The violin fell to the Italians, the flute to the Germans, the harpsichord to the English, and the basse de viole to the French. Although the roots of the French school of gamba playing can be traced to England (the first chordal compositions were written there, and the English are credited with popularising the instrument on the Continent), it was in France that some of the instrument’s greatest virtuosos worked and its construction was perfected. Foreign musicians also trained in France, such as the German gambist Ernst Christian Hesse. One instrument related to the viola da gamba is the lute, and works for lute were taken as models for gamba compositions by Antoine Forqueray, among others, a musician contemporary of Marin Marais. In their time, the eminent lute player, theorist and guitarist Robert de Visée, who was also a gamba player, worked in the ensemble of King Louis XIV at Versailles, as Jean Rousseau mentions in one of his letters. The similarity between the gamba and the lute may also have been noticed by Johann Sebastian Bach, as is suggested by the aria ‘Komm süsses Kreuz’ from the St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, in which the composer envisaged a solo part for viola da gamba. In the original version, however, the solo instrument there was the lute. Daniel Laskowski

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next week

In Warszawa

Simply... Philharmonic!4: Jadran Duncumb

Thu, Mar 20, 2025, 19:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Chamber Music Hall (Warszawa)

Jadran Duncumb (Lute)

Jadran Duncumb, fot. Jørn Pedersen The standard method of writing out lute works was to use tablature notation. It was convenient for the performer, thanks to the clear indication of the string and the fret from which the sound should be made. However, tablature notation was not the most precise, as it did not stipulate the duration of notes. Johann Sebastian Bach was not a lutenist, so he could not adopt a performer’s perspective when composing his lute pieces. Consequently, he wrote them out in classical scores, and the existing tablatures of his works were certainly not written by Johann Sebastian himself. We may speculate that, in assigning a work to the lute, Bach wanted to maintain a degree of control over the musical material, as he did with works for other instruments. Moreover, some of the lute compositions are arrangements of earlier works: the Suite in G minor, BWV 995, for example, evolved from its cello counterpart BWV 1011 (then in the key of C minor). Perhaps, when writing these works, Bach was thinking not only of the lute, but also of the Lautenwerk – a keyboard instrument with gut strings whose sound imitated the lute. A document prepared after the composer’s death, in 1750, shows that he owned two such instruments. The existing lute works certainly testify that this instrument, still popular in the eighteenth century, was important to Bach. Simply… Philharmonic! Project 4: If one were to assign a specific instrument to each country of particular importance on the musical scene of Baroque Europe, the viola da gamba would certainly fall to France. Such an attempt to find national connections to instruments was also made by the eighteenth-century gambist Hubert Le Blanc, who opened his treatise on the instrument with the statement: The Divine Intelligence, among its many gifts, has endowed mortals with Harmony. The violin fell to the Italians, the flute to the Germans, the harpsichord to the English, and the basse de viole to the French. Although the roots of the French school of gamba playing can be traced to England (the first chordal compositions were written there, and the English are credited with popularising the instrument on the Continent), it was in France that some of the instrument’s greatest virtuosos worked and its construction was perfected. Foreign musicians also trained in France, such as the German gambist Ernst Christian Hesse. One instrument related to the viola da gamba is the lute, and works for lute were taken as models for gamba compositions by Antoine Forqueray, among others, a musician contemporary of Marin Marais. In their time, the eminent lute player, theorist and guitarist Robert de Visée, who was also a gamba player, worked in the ensemble of King Louis XIV at Versailles, as Jean Rousseau mentions in one of his letters. The similarity between the gamba and the lute may also have been noticed by Johann Sebastian Bach, as is suggested by the aria ‘Komm süsses Kreuz’ from the St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, in which the composer envisaged a solo part for viola da gamba. In the original version, however, the solo instrument there was the lute. Daniel Laskowski

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next week

In Warszawa

Symphonic Concert

Fri, Mar 21, 2025, 19:30

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Przemysław Neumann (Conductor), Nemanja Radulović (Violin)

Nemanja Radulović, photo: Sever Zolak If one examines Serbian violinist Nemanja Radulović’s stage performances and recordings, one may gain the impression that he is a modern-day incarnation of the virtuosos of old, who were sometimes suspected of conniving with the powers of hell. After all, one of the ensembles founded by Radulović bears the provocative name Les trilles du diable (‘the devil’s trills’), referring to the famous sonata by Giuseppe Tartini. Radulović has been playing violin since the age of seven and was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire aged 14. He has recorded for major record companies and given concerts in famous halls and open-air venues associated not only with the world of classical music. In Warsaw, he will be performing as the soloist in Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D minor. Premiered in 1940, this lengthy work is full of references to the traditional music of the Caucasus, which had inspired the composer since his childhood. A perfect introduction to the Serbian virtuoso’s performance will be Rolf Liebermann’s Furioso. This frenetic composition, which combines the form of an Italian overture with twelve-tone technique and ostinato, was presented with great success in the mid-twentieth century in Darmstadt – a Mecca for avant-garde artists. The concert will conclude with Witold Maliszewski’s Symphony No. 3 in C minor, which refers to classical models. Particularly noteworthy is the colourful instrumentation of the third movement, based on the form of a theme with variations.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next week

In Warszawa

Symphonic Concert

Sat, Mar 22, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Przemysław Neumann (Conductor), Nemanja Radulović (Violin)

Nemanja Radulović, photo: Sever Zolak If one examines Serbian violinist Nemanja Radulović’s stage performances and recordings, one may gain the impression that he is a modern-day incarnation of the virtuosos of old, who were sometimes suspected of conniving with the powers of hell. After all, one of the ensembles founded by Radulović bears the provocative name Les trilles du diable (‘the devil’s trills’), referring to the famous sonata by Giuseppe Tartini. Radulović has been playing violin since the age of seven and was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire aged 14. He has recorded for major record companies and given concerts in famous halls and open-air venues associated not only with the world of classical music. In Warsaw, he will be performing as the soloist in Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D minor. Premiered in 1940, this lengthy work is full of references to the traditional music of the Caucasus, which had inspired the composer since his childhood. A perfect introduction to the Serbian virtuoso’s performance will be Rolf Liebermann’s Furioso. This frenetic composition, which combines the form of an Italian overture with twelve-tone technique and ostinato, was presented with great success in the mid-twentieth century in Darmstadt – a Mecca for avant-garde artists. The concert will conclude with Witold Maliszewski’s Symphony No. 3 in C minor, which refers to classical models. Particularly noteworthy is the colourful instrumentation of the third movement, based on the form of a theme with variations.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This month

In Warszawa

A Music Kaleidoscope

Sun, Mar 23, 2025, 11:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Chamber Music Hall (Warszawa)

Alan Turonek (Trumpet), Michał Zaborski (Viola), Gabriel Jasiorowski (Percussion), Maciej Smoląg (Piano), Jarosław Praszczałek (Presenter)

Attention! All music lovers are cordially invited to a great display of virtuosity! A trumpet in one corner, percussion in another, and a piano between them. The viola, often underestimated, will try to reconcile them. Each instrument will showcase its unique capabilities. What do you think – will they perform better solo, or is it worth joining forces and playing as an ensemble? Younger and older listeners will be told about the history and construction of these instruments. We’ll also consider why they sound so dignified, while not shying away from numerous musical embellishments.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This month

In Warszawa

A Music Kaleidoscope

Sun, Mar 23, 2025, 14:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Chamber Music Hall (Warszawa)

Alan Turonek (Trumpet), Michał Zaborski (Viola), Karolina Mysłek (Percussion), Justyna Żołnacz (Piano), Jarosław Praszczałek (Presenter)

Attention! All music lovers are cordially invited to a great display of virtuosity! A trumpet in one corner, percussion in another, and a piano between them. The viola, often underestimated, will try to reconcile them. Each instrument will showcase its unique capabilities. What do you think – will they perform better solo, or is it worth joining forces and playing as an ensemble? Younger and older listeners will be told about the history and construction of these instruments. We’ll also consider why they sound so dignified, while not shying away from numerous musical embellishments.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This month

In Warszawa

An Evening of Songs

Sun, Mar 23, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Piotr Beczała (Tenor), Sarah Tysman (Piano)

Piotr Beczała, photo: Jean-Baptiste Millot

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This month

In Warszawa

Violin Recital

Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 19:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Augustin Hadelich (Violin)

Augustin Hadelich, photo: Suxiao_Yang Augustin Hadelich used the time of the Covid-19 pandemic to study solo works by Johann Sebastian Bach. He has the good fortune to play on a unique violin called ‘Leduc’, once owned by the famous virtuoso Henryk Szeryng and considered by some to be the last work of the Cremonese lutenist Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù. On this instrument, he recorded a two-CD album of Bach sonatas and partitas. Hadelich matched a copy of a Baroque bow to an eighteenth-century violin, but without completely abandoning the ‘modern’ aesthetic in which he grew up. Two Bach partitas will open and close his recital at the Warsaw Philharmonic, consisting of varied examples of solo violin music. In his Blue/s Forms, Coleridge Taylor Perkinson drew on intervals characteristic of blues and jazz that are lowered for expressive purposes (so-called blue notes). David Lang’s Mystery Sonatas, a cycle premiered in 2014 by Augustin Hadelich, is a conscious (albeit distant) reference to the famous work of the brilliant Baroque violinist Heinrich Ignaz Biber. As for Eugène Ysaÿe’s showstopping Sonata No. 3, dedicated to Romanian composer George Enescu, it ranks alongside Bach’s sonatas and partitas among the greatest and most popular challenges of the solo violin repertoire. The concert will take place in the Concert Hall, and not, as previously planned, in the Chamber Music Hall.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This month

In Warszawa

Oratorio Music Concert

Sat, Mar 29, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Władysław Skoraczewski Artos Choir at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Jan Willem de Vriend (Conductor), Dorota Szczepańska (Soprano), Jess Dandy (Contralto), Laurence Kilsby (Tenor), Halvor Festervoll Melien (Bariton), Karol Kozłowski (Tenor), Karol Kozłowski (Ewangelista), Lars Johansson Brissman (Bariton), Lars Johansson Brissman (Jezus), Bartosz Michałowski (Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir), Danuta Chmurska (Director of the Artos Choir)

Jan Willem de Vriend, photo: Emelie Schäfer In the midst of the inevitable disputes over the most important achievement in Johann Sebastian Bach’s oeuvre, the St Matthew Passion keeps cropping up. As English musician and scholar John Butt has noted, it is curious that a masterpiece whose emotional charge reaches the limit of human endurance was written in a secondary German centre as Leipzig was in the eighteenth century. Not all those attending the Good Friday Lutheran services during which the Passions were performed in the Saxon city necessarily appreciated the massive scale of Bach’s work, together with its subtle drama. Today’s reception of the Passion would probably infuriate both the Leipzig townspeople and the composer himself. It is difficult to count all its contemporary performances and recordings, let alone the attempts at scientific interpretations of the symbols hidden on various levels of the score. Numerous statements from present-day listeners echo the conviction of the timelessness of the arias, recitatives and choruses from the St Matthew Passion, which, as it turns out, appeal not only to believers, since Bach employed almost every available means of sound painting to tell a profoundly human story about the fragility of life, love, betrayal, violence and loss.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This month

In Warszawa

Oratorio Music Concert

Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Jan Willem de Vriend, photo: Emelie Schäfer In the midst of the inevitable disputes over the most important achievement in Johann Sebastian Bach’s oeuvre, the St Matthew Passion keeps cropping up. As English musician and scholar John Butt has noted, it is curious that a masterpiece whose emotional charge reaches the limit of human endurance was written in a secondary German centre as Leipzig was in the eighteenth century. Not all those attending the Good Friday Lutheran services during which the Passions were performed in the Saxon city necessarily appreciated the massive scale of Bach’s work, together with its subtle drama. Today’s reception of the Passion would probably infuriate both the Leipzig townspeople and the composer himself. It is difficult to count all its contemporary performances and recordings, let alone the attempts at scientific interpretations of the symbols hidden on various levels of the score. Numerous statements from present-day listeners echo the conviction of the timelessness of the arias, recitatives and choruses from the St Matthew Passion, which, as it turns out, appeal not only to believers, since Bach employed almost every available means of sound painting to tell a profoundly human story about the fragility of life, love, betrayal, violence and loss.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next month

In Warszawa

Symphonic Concert

Fri, Apr 4, 2025, 19:30

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacek Brzoznowski (Conductor)

Jacek Brzoznowski, photo: opera.poznan.pl Due to reasons beyond the Warsaw Philharmonic, there has been a change of conductor for the subscription concerts on 4 and 5 April 2025. Instead of Antonello Manacorda, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by Jacek Brzoznowski, who is acting as Assistant Conductor for the current season. The programme of the concerts remains unchanged. Beethoven seems to have ‘commissioned’ his Symphony No. 1 in C major from himself. The ambition to tackle a form that the Romantic aesthetic revolution would soon be treating as a laboratory for absolute music would have suited the Viennese Classic’s character. The increasingly prominent 30-year-old composer dedicated the completed work, on which he worked meticulously for many years, to Gottfried van Swieten, the protector of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was the achievements of those composers, kindly disposed towards the young Beethoven, with whose output he would hardly have dared to vie at the time, that served as the starting point for his supremely successful debut symphony. The Symphony No. 1 by the twentieth-century classic Dmitry Shostakovich was his diploma piece in the composition class of the Leningrad Conservatory, from which he graduated at the age of 19. Characterised by the composer’s typical play of edgy motifs, march-like rhythms and clear textures, this work soon ventured beyond the university walls, bringing its young composer international acclaim. Subsequent anniversaries of the symphony’s first performance at the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1926 were later celebrated by Shostakovich for the rest of his life, while that famous institution, remembering the premieres of his other works, later repaid the favour by adopting Shostakovich as its patron.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next month

In Warszawa

Symphonic Concert

Sat, Apr 5, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacek Brzoznowski (Conductor)

Jacek Brzoznowski, photo: opera.poznan.pl Due to reasons beyond the Warsaw Philharmonic, there has been a change of conductor for the subscription concerts on 4 and 5 April 2025. Instead of Antonello Manacorda, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by Jacek Brzoznowski, who is acting as Assistant Conductor for the current season. The programme of the concerts remains unchanged. Beethoven seems to have ‘commissioned’ his Symphony No. 1 in C major from himself. The ambition to tackle a form that the Romantic aesthetic revolution would soon be treating as a laboratory for absolute music would have suited the Viennese Classic’s character. The increasingly prominent 30-year-old composer dedicated the completed work, on which he worked meticulously for many years, to Gottfried van Swieten, the protector of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was the achievements of those composers, kindly disposed towards the young Beethoven, with whose output he would hardly have dared to vie at the time, that served as the starting point for his supremely successful debut symphony. The Symphony No. 1 by the twentieth-century classic Dmitry Shostakovich was his diploma piece in the composition class of the Leningrad Conservatory, from which he graduated at the age of 19. Characterised by the composer’s typical play of edgy motifs, march-like rhythms and clear textures, this work soon ventured beyond the university walls, bringing its young composer international acclaim. Subsequent anniversaries of the symphony’s first performance at the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1926 were later celebrated by Shostakovich for the rest of his life, while that famous institution, remembering the premieres of his other works, later repaid the favour by adopting Shostakovich as its patron.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next month

In Warszawa

The Sounds of Air

Sun, Apr 6, 2025, 11:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Chamber Music Hall (Warszawa)

Anita Kander-Marchewka (Flute), Agata Bała (Oboe), Małgorzata Jończyk (Clarinet), Adam Ostrowski (Bassoon), Konrad Gołda (Horn), Gabriel Jasiorowski (Percussion instruments), Barbara Szczęsna-Remisz (Presenter)

The spring wind rustles in the trees, sings merrily in birdsong, chases the clouds away, turns somersaults, fills the fields and meadows with sound... This concert will be filled with music conjured up by wind instruments: the singing flute, the mysterious clarinet, the lyrical oboe, the playful bassoon, the gentle horn and energetic percussion. We’ll blow notes, dance in rhythms, visit the court of a Chinese empress and listen to raindrops falling. Who is curious to know whether the sounds of the air are light as a feather or heavy as a storm? Who wants to find out how to conjure music from the air and look for spring in it?

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next month

In Warszawa

The Sounds of Air

Sun, Apr 6, 2025, 14:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Chamber Music Hall (Warszawa)

The spring wind rustles in the trees, sings merrily in birdsong, chases the clouds away, turns somersaults, fills the fields and meadows with sound... This concert will be filled with music conjured up by wind instruments: the singing flute, the mysterious clarinet, the lyrical oboe, the playful bassoon, the gentle horn and energetic percussion. We’ll blow notes, dance in rhythms, visit the court of a Chinese empress and listen to raindrops falling. Who is curious to know whether the sounds of the air are light as a feather or heavy as a storm? Who wants to find out how to conjure music from the air and look for spring in it?

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next month

In Warszawa

Symphonic Concert

Fri, Apr 25, 2025, 19:30

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)

Next month

In Warszawa

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)

Next month

In Warszawa

Magic Powder

Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 11:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacek Brzoznowski (Conductor), Adrianna Furmanik-Celejewska (Presenter)

Abracadabra, hocus-pocus, hey presto, bam! FeNek knows lots of musical spells with which he can conjure up rhythms and melodies, as well as instruments. What is that magic? What does an orchestra sprinkled with a good fairy’s magic dust sound like? To find out, come to the concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic and bring a hand-made wand with you. Who knows what you’ll be able to conjure up? Bring to the concert… a hand-made wand

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Next month

In Warszawa

Magic Powder

Sun, Apr 27, 2025, 14:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacek Brzoznowski (Conductor), Adrianna Furmanik-Celejewska (Presenter)

Abracadabra, hocus-pocus, hey presto, bam! FeNek knows lots of musical spells with which he can conjure up rhythms and melodies, as well as instruments. What is that magic? What does an orchestra sprinkled with a good fairy’s magic dust sound like? To find out, come to the concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic and bring a hand-made wand with you. Who knows what you’ll be able to conjure up? Bring to the concert… a hand-made wand

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This season

In Warszawa

Concert of Film Music: Korngold in Hollywood

Fri, May 9, 2025, 19:30

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Rumon Gamba (Conductor), Johan Dalene (Violin)

Johan Dalene, photo: Marco Borggreve Erich Wolfgang Korngold was a child prodigy whose talent enchanted Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. He staged his most famous opera at the age of 23, pursued a career as a conductor shortly afterwards and then became, still at a very young age, a lecturer at the Staatsakademie für Musik in Vienna. Nothing foreshadowed his great turn to film, which – bored by the silent image – decided to speak with an audible voice. A few years before the outbreak of the Second World War, Korngold moved to the US, and he eventually took American citizenship. He became permanently associated with Hollywood, setting the mould for later film music composers. At the same time, he remained faithful to the style of the composers whom he had captivated in his early career. Korngold wrote music for many films, including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Kings Row (1941), twice receiving an Oscar. However, he did not abandon the classical forms and contexts of symphonic music. In 1945 he completed his Violin Concerto, with Jascha Heifetz performing the solo part. It is undoubtedly one of the most ‘cinematic’ of instrumental concertos, be it only because the composer took numerous themes from his film scores.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This season

In Warszawa

Concert of Film Music: Korngold in Hollywood

Sat, May 10, 2025, 18:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Rumon Gamba (Conductor), Johan Dalene (Violin)

Johan Dalene, photo: Marco Borggreve Erich Wolfgang Korngold was a child prodigy whose talent enchanted Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. He staged his most famous opera at the age of 23, pursued a career as a conductor shortly afterwards and then became, still at a very young age, a lecturer at the Staatsakademie für Musik in Vienna. Nothing foreshadowed his great turn to film, which – bored by the silent image – decided to speak with an audible voice. A few years before the outbreak of the Second World War, Korngold moved to the US, and he eventually took American citizenship. He became permanently associated with Hollywood, setting the mould for later film music composers. At the same time, he remained faithful to the style of the composers whom he had captivated in his early career. Korngold wrote music for many films, including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Kings Row (1941), twice receiving an Oscar. However, he did not abandon the classical forms and contexts of symphonic music. In 1945 he completed his Violin Concerto, with Jascha Heifetz performing the solo part. It is undoubtedly one of the most ‘cinematic’ of instrumental concertos, be it only because the composer took numerous themes from his film scores.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This season

In Warszawa

A Musical Bunch

Sun, May 11, 2025, 11:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Vocal ensemble NotaBene, Andrzej Borzym (Art Director), Halina Szkodzińska (Piano), Agata Kawełczyk-Starosta (Presenter)

FeNek is occasionally visited by a musical gang. So what is it? Well, a gang is a group of people who like and respect each other and are harmonious, not only at concerts. Every meeting brings new musical adventures: together they figure out how to give each other a tune, tap out a rhythm or catch a harmony, while asking each other strange questions. ‘Do tigers eat irises?’ ‘Which is better to have: feathers or quills?’ ‘Who’s the mysterious pumpkin eater?’ As you may have guessed, this is quite a crazy bunch, but they’re also sensitive and attentive to lyrical, romantic sounds... played, for example, on the piano. If you’d like to join the musical gang, come to the concert at the Philharmonic, and don’t forget to bring along... a hand-made drum. Bring to the concert… a hand-made drum

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This season

In Warszawa

A Musical Bunch

Sun, May 11, 2025, 14:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Vocal ensemble NotaBene, Andrzej Borzym (Art Director), Halina Szkodzińska (Piano), Agata Kawełczyk-Starosta (Presenter)

FeNek is occasionally visited by a musical gang. So what is it? Well, a gang is a group of people who like and respect each other and are harmonious, not only at concerts. Every meeting brings new musical adventures: together they figure out how to give each other a tune, tap out a rhythm or catch a harmony, while asking each other strange questions. ‘Do tigers eat irises?’ ‘Which is better to have: feathers or quills?’ ‘Who’s the mysterious pumpkin eater?’ As you may have guessed, this is quite a crazy bunch, but they’re also sensitive and attentive to lyrical, romantic sounds... played, for example, on the piano. If you’d like to join the musical gang, come to the concert at the Philharmonic, and don’t forget to bring along... a hand-made drum. Bring to the concert… a hand-made drum

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This season

In Warszawa

Symphonic Concert

Sun, May 11, 2025, 19:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Orchestra of the Krakow Philharmonic, Choir of the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic in Krakow, Chór Chłopięcy i Dziewczęcy Filharmonii Krakowskiej, Alexander Humala (Conductor), Ivo Pogorelich (Piano), Piotr Piwko (Chorus Master), Lidia Matynian (Przygotowanie chóru chłopięcego i dziewczęcego)

Ivo Pogorelich, photo: Andrej Grilc

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This season

In Warszawa

Polish Music Scene

Tue, May 13, 2025, 19:00

Filharmonia Narodowa, Chamber Music Hall (Warszawa)

FudalaRot Duo, Wojciech Fudala (Cello), Michał Rot (Piano)

FudalaRot Duo, photo: from the ensemble's archive Fryderyk Chopin composed the Grand Duo concertant in E major for cello and piano in collaboration with an acquaintance of his, the French cellist Auguste Franchomme, at the turn of 1832 and 1833. This instrumental duo, extremely popular in its day, represents the virtuoso-sentimental style brillant and is a paraphrase of themes from Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera Robert le diable. Karol Szymanowski’s Sonata in D minor, Op. 9 for violin and piano was written in Berlin in 1904. It is regarded as one of the first works of his early creative period, in which the characteristics of his individual style were fully revealed. In contrast, Roxana’s Song, from the opera King Roger, completed 20 years later, is an ecstatic vocalisation of a distinctly oriental character. Grave for cello and piano was composed by Witold Lutosławski in 1981, in memory of musicologist Stefan Jarociński. In this piece, he used motifs from Claude Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande. Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 for cello and piano was composed in 1959 at the request of the famous Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who was a friend of the composer. This three-movement work, representing the neoclassical style, is characterised by a wealth of melodic invention and expressive means. The Polish Music Scene is a programme of music organised by the National Institute of Music and Dance in collaboration with the Warsaw Philharmonic and financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. We present Polish artists and Polish compositions – particularly works not often performed. We wish to promote the performance of Polish music, inspire musicians to turn to this repertoire and generate interest among audiences in Polish musical output as broadly understood. The programme is open to instrumentalists and singers, soloists and chamber ensembles. The programmes featuring Polish music, selected via a competition, will be performed in the Chamber Music Hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic and at other concert venues around Poland.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

This season

In Warszawa

Symphonic Concert

Fri, May 16, 2025, 19:30

Filharmonia Narodowa, Concert Hall (Warszawa)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Niklas Willén (Conductor), Marianna Bednarska (Marimba)

Marianna Bednarska, photo: Venera Red / Kolberg Percussion When a writer commissions a composer to write music for a play, they must expect that the latter’s name will be henceforth associated with the title of the work. Just as it would be difficult to name from memory the authors of the words to all our favourite operatic arias, in the case of the drama Peer Gynt, many of us first think of Edvard Grieg, the composer of the brilliant music, rather than the playwright Henrik Ibsen. Over time, Grieg divided selected fragments of his music for the play into two suites that migrated out into the wide world, successfully detaching themselves from their theatrical original. Exercises, studies and passages are, on the one hand, the bane of most musicians and, on the other, useful practice. Overheard by American composer Kevin Puts as he passed an auditorium, the simple harmonic progressions used by a pianist to play himself in may have influenced the shape of his warm-sounding Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra, written towards the end of the last century. Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1, written a century earlier, stems from the tradition of Romantic programme music, although the composer himself denied that it was accompanied by extra-musical content. Somewhat in spite of the composer’s claims, researchers have arrived at the work’s precisely thought-out (though ultimately abandoned) programme, to be titled Musical Dialogue, drawing on such inspirations as poetry by Heine and probably also a Shakespeare play.

Info & Ticket (filharmonia.pl)

Classical Concerts atFilharmonia Narodowa

Overview

Concert FeaturesAt Filharmonia Narodowa

ProgramFrequently performed

OrchestrasFrequently performs

Upcoming Concerts

Classical Concerts at
Filharmonia Narodowa