Performers
- Adam Bałdych Quintet
- Adam Bałdych violin
- Michał Gondko saxophone
- Łukasz Ojdana piano
- Dawid Fortuna percussion
- Michał Barański double-bass
Programme
Music from the album Legend (2022) inspired by pieces by Henryk Wieniawski
Concert description
Nowadays, we know the works of the 19th century in relatively standardized versions. With fairly accurate notation and the development of printing, we can “reproduce” them in performances. When comparing artistic interpretations, we tend to pay more attention to the details: fluctuations in tempo, slightly different articulation or dynamics, or highlighting certain features of a composition.
Sometimes we forget that Romantic music – even the notated one – was organically connected with improvisation. Musicians played ad hoc rhapsodies or variations on operatic or song themes, and each performance could sound different – Frederic Chopin is said to have played a piece differently every time.
It was in improvisation that Adam Bałdych saw the potential for classical music and jazz encounters. As a violinist, he reached for the works of Poland’s preeminent composer of pieces for the violin, Henryk Wieniawski. Jazz quintet arrangements offer a completely fresh and new perspective on the violin and Wieniawski’s works – paradoxically, with a return to the roots of Romantic performance.
– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”