Programme

Programme

Missy Mazzoli Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres [9’]*
Fabien Waksman A Dream for Artemis. Lunar Fantasy for saxophone quartet and orchestra (Polish premiere) [30’]**
I. Before the Moon Rush
II. Ignition Sequence Start
III. 4 Soul Space Debris Haunting LEO
IV. Artemis to the Highest Frontier
Arturo Márquez Conga del Fuego Nuevo (Conga of the New Fire ceremony) [5’]

Concert description

Before the Apollo 11 mission put man on the Moon, it was music that transported listeners into space. Fortunately, even after humans set foot on the silver globe, composers continued to be inspired by it, and the universe did not become any less mysterious or stimulating. The dream of the Moon inspired Fabien Waksman’s A Dream for Artemis. Lunar Fantasy for saxophone quartet and orchestra. The eponymous Artemis is not only Apollo’s sister, goddess of the hunt and the Moon, but also the patroness of NASA’s current space program. Missy Mazzoli, one of the first female composers to be commissioned by the New York Metropolitan Opera, in Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres revives the ancient concept of the harmony of the spheres with new means – a recorded electronic layer and instruments unusual for an orchestra, such as the melodica, harmonicas and… a spring. Conga del Fuego by Nuevo Márquez, on the other hand, refers to the cosmic dimension of the Xiuhmolpilli ceremony, organizing the Aztec calendar, in which the old was burned with fire and the new emerged from the flames.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Space exploration has from the outset reflected both the best and the worst of human nature. The race to orbit began, after all, on the back of repurposed ballistic missiles, as part of the contest between superpowers.

Yet once we arrived there, our creativity exploded. Barely eight years separated Gagarin’s flight from the complex landing on the Moon. The technologies developed at the time became the foundation for decades of progress.

Spacefaring also proved to be a field for easing geopolitical tensions. During the Apollo 13 mission, the USSR offered support in communicating with the damaged spacecraft, while the docking of Apollo CSM with Soyuz 19 became a symbol of détente.

Space missions produced heroes, but also tragedies. The loss of the Apollo 1 and Soyuz crews, and the shuttle disasters, served as stark reminders that space does not forgive mistakes. Yet the rewards of taking such risks were knowledge and groundbreaking technologies

Then came the International Space Station, a symbol of civilisational cooperation. The Voyager probes, still operating, have crossed the boundary of our solar system. Robots have not only roamed the surface of Mars on wheels but have even flown above it.

Entrepreneurs, too, entered the field. Ambitious billionaires became the faces of new ventures, promising cities in orbit and on Mars. Sadly, the darker side of our nature has resurfaced as well, in the form of the growing militarisation of space. The question of whether, in the near future, we shall look to the heavens as explorers or as generals remains unresolved.

— Krzysztof Kurdyła (Nauka. To Lubię Foundation)

Programme

Jean-Philippe Rameau Suite of dances from the opéra-ballet Les Indes galantes [14’]
Air for the African Slaves (Air pour les esclaves africains) from scene VI of entrée Generous Turk (Le Turc généreux)
Contredanse from scene V of Prologue
Prelude for the Adoration of the Sun (Prélude pour l’adoration du soleil) from scene V of entrée The Incas of Peru (Les Incas du Pérou)
Rondeau: Dance of the Grand Peace Pipe, Performed by the Savages (Rondeau: Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix, exécutée par les sauvages) from scene VI of entrée Savages (Les Sauvages)
Chaconne from scene VI of entrée Savages
Witold Lutosławski Little Suite for symphony orchestra [14’]
Fife
Hurra Polka
Song
Dance
Léo Delibes Suite from the ballet Coppélia (selection) [10’]
Entr’acte and Waltz
Prelude and Mazurka
Charles Gounod Ballet music from act V of opera Faust [15’]
Allegretto (Tempo di valse)
Adagio
Allegretto
Moderato maestoso
Moderato con moto
Allegretto
Allegro vivo – Poco animato

Programme

Joseph Haydn String Quartet in D major, Op. 76 No. 5, Hob.III:79 [18’]
I. Allegretto – Allegro
II. Largo. Cantabile e mesto
III. Menuetto: Allegro – Trio
IV. Finale: Presto
Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2 [37’]
I. Allegro
II. Molto adagio. Si tratta questo pezzo con molto di sentimento
III. Allegretto – Maggiore (Thème russe)
IV. Finale: Presto

Concert description

Palaces, salons, theaters, churches, cafes, and squares… At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Vienna’s musical life knew no boundaries. One of the most prestigious and, at the same time, most intimate (which is not contradictory at all!) genres was the string quartet. Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven are celebrated as its greatest masters and innovators. The former composed over eighty quartets, the latter – sixteen, but much more elaborate ones. Those selected by Elmire – Haydn’s D major, Op. 76, No. 5 and Beethoven’s E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 – are among the most famous.

The oldest of the Viennese classics dedicated Op. 76 to Hungarian Count Joseph Georg von Erdődy. The fifth of the six quartets in this collection is sometimes referred to as the “Graveyard Quartet” because of the exceptionally extended slow second movement Largo. Cantabile e mesto. Its melancholy, however, is matched by serenity and tranquility, and the somewhat heavy minuet that follows and the breakneck rushing Presto dispel any remaining reverie.

Opus number 59, in turn, hides a group of three compositions better known as the “Razumovsky Quartets.” They were commissioned from Beethoven by the Russian ambassador to Vienna, Prince Andrey Razumovsky. As a tribute to the patron, they incorporated Russian folk melodies. However, some musicologists suspect that the specific, mocking elaboration of one of them in the third movement of the Quartet in E minor indicates that the composer did so reluctantly. Here, too, as in Haydn’s quartet, attention is drawn to the second, slow movement, bearing the instruction to play it “with great affection.”

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Bedřich Smetana Symphonic poem Moldau (Vltava) from the cycle My Fatherland (Má vlast), JB.1:112/2 [13’]
Charles Ives The Unanswered Question [5’]
Samuel Barber Adagio for strings, Op. 11 [9’]
Antonín Dvořák American Suite, Op. 98a [22’]
I. Andante con moto
II. Allegro
III. Moderato (alla Polacca)
IV. Andante
V. Allegro

Programme

Original compositions with a flavour of contemporary classical, folk and jazz inspired by the American South.

Concert description

The group TVÆRS works in the space between musical genres in order to create a unique expression in which contemporary music, folk and jazz blend together into a unified whole. While the musicians stem from classical and contemporary music they have all been brought up with a myriad of styles of rhythmical music. This has formed the five highly established Nordic musicians and it is this diverse upbringing that is allowed to unfold in the project TVÆRS (meaning across) as a multi or post-genre ensemble which afford various musical forms of expression to enrich each other.

Nordic Art Music Rooted in American Soil

Formed while on tour in the United States, TVÆRS draws inspiration from the American landscape and its cities. Their songwriting is deeply intertwined with the places they’ve encountered, such as Louisville, Kentucky, where the group met poet Maurice Manning. Manning’s evocative poetry serves as the textual foundation for Jakob Kullberg’s songs A Prayer for Pigs and The Chickasaw Plum Tree, as well as Eivind Buene’s Tiger Lilies in Kentucky – a work for solo cello and spoken word.

The influence of place continues through the work of Niels Rønsholdt, whose songs such as Memphis Motel, Stuck in Kentucky, and After Mardi Gras (set in New Orleans) reflect the emotional and physical landscapes encountered during their travels.

TVÆRS merges these American inspirations with a distinctly Nordic sensibility, shaped by the artistic voices of its three composers and lead vocalists: Danes Jakob Kullberg and Niels Rønsholdt, and Norwegian composer Eivind Buene. The result is a body of work that transcends borders – introspective, place-aware, and richly layered with poetic and musical depth.

– TVÆRS (opis twórców projektu)

Concert co-financed by Art Music Denmark

Programme

George Gershwin (arr. Paul Lay, orch. Philippe Maniez)
Nice work if you can get it
It ain’t necessarily so
George Gershwin/Paul Lay Rhapsody in Blue Extended 1924–2024 in version for jazz trio and orchestra
Paul Lay Cuban Interlude (orch. Philippe Maniez)
George Gershwin Summertime (arr. Paul Lay, orch. Philippe Maniez)

Concert description

“It’s a nice job if you can get it,” states one of George Gershwin’s songs, with lyrics by his brother Ira. As a teenager, the composer performed songs and sold note sheets for them in one of the stores on New York’s Tin Pan Alley. Did he consider this work nice? He certainly learned a lot then, and shortly thereafter his own songs became famous, later ending up on Broadway and in Hollywood films, like A Damsel in Distress with Fred Astaire. It is from this film that Nice work if you can get it comes.

Also Gershwin’s longer works, for which he is revered as a composer of “classical” music, are permeated by the element of song. This is the case, for example, with the opera Porgy and Bess, whose libretto depicts the life of a smaller town. The poor African-American neighborhood of Catfish Row in Charleston gives a sense of community – children are sung lullabies here (Summertime), people pray together (gospels) and mourn the dead (spirituals). Sometimes, however, it’s also a dangerous place, where you can be killed by an opponent after winning a dice game. But going to New York doesn’t necessarily mean “breaking out” at all, and can sometimes be a further continuation of a miserable fate. Such is the case with the eponymous Bess, who is taken there by a cynically mocking Bible (It ain’t necessarily so) drug dealer, Sportin’ Life.

Fortunately for Gershwin himself, the city of his birth was friendly to him. For example, it enthusiastically welcomed Rhapsody in Blue, described as “an experiment in modern music” that brought jazz to philharmonic stages. To this day, its author’s music invites us to try something new – to elaborate on it, to develop it, to respond creatively. Such is undoubtedly the activity of Paul Lay and his trio.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Concert description

Little Basil loves traveling. Almost no one knows about the fact that the dragon hidden in a case has traveled all over the world with Sinfonia Varsovia! He visited many cities in Europe, Asia, North and South America, traveled thousands of kilometers by land and air. Wherever the orchestra performed, there he was, too – a Warsaw dragon who loved music so much that he decided to take up residence in its instrument storehouse. He quickly discovered that the metal boxes and hard-sided cases being pulled out of there heralded the orchestra’s departure for concerts. Little Basil – a fare dodger – was taken along with the musicians. It was finally time for Little Basil to show the audience his souvenirs from the trip: photographs and musical memories. Pieces related to cities such as Paris, London, Vienna, Budapest and New York – will be played by Sinfonia Varsovia. Its musicians, together with the conductor, will help the dragon tell about the adventures experienced there.

Concert description

How big and beautiful Warsaw is! Our city has a long history and hides many legends, but it is also constantly changing. The Mermaid has been carefully watching her city from the current of the Vistula River for a long time. Maybe she could tell us what kind of music Warsaw people listened to and what Warsaw women sang in the days of King Stanislaus? Or maybe she could tell us what melodies little Frederic Chopin knew and what Stanisław Moniuszko hummed? We will invite the Warsaw Mermaid to join the fun! Together we will embark on a musical journey through the history and present day of Warsaw – full of sounds and rhythms. We will listen, dance and sing together.

Programme

Jean-Philippe Rameau Suite of dances from the opéra-ballet Les Indes galantes [14’]
Air for the African Slaves (Air pour les esclaves africains) from scene VI of entrée Generous Turk (Le Turc généreux)
Contredanse from scene V of Prologue
Prelude for the Adoration of the Sun (Prélude pour l’adoration du soleil) from scene V of entrée The Incas of Peru (Les Incas du Pérou)
Rondeau: Dance of the Grand Peace Pipe, Performed by the Savages (Rondeau: Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix, exécutée par les sauvages) from scene VI of entrée Savages (Les Sauvages)
Chaconne from scene VI of entrée Savages
Charles Gounod Ballet music from act V of the opera Faust [15’]
Allegretto (Tempo di valse)
Adagio
Allegretto
Moderato maestoso
Moderato con moto
Allegretto
Allegro vivo – Poco animato
Léo Delibes Suite from the ballet Coppélia (selection) [10’]
Prelude and Mazurka
Entr’acte and Waltz
Witold Lutosławski Little Suite for symphony orchestra [14’]
Fife
Hurra Polka
Song
Dance

Programme

Samuel Barber Adagio for strings, Op. 11 [9’]
Bedřich Smetana Symphonic poem Moldau (Vltava) from the cycle My Fatherland (Má vlast), JB.1:112/2 [13’]

Stanisław Moniuszko Fantastic Overture Fairy Tale (Conte d’hiver, arr. Witold Rowicki) [9’]
Bert Appermont Colors for trombone and symphony orchestra [16′]*
I. Yellow
II. Red
III. Blue
IV. Green

Concert description

How big and beautiful Warsaw is! Our city has a long history and hides many legends, but it is also constantly changing. The Mermaid has been carefully watching her city from the current of the Vistula River for a long time. Maybe she could tell us what kind of music Warsaw people listened to and what Warsaw women sang in the days of King Stanislaus? Or maybe she could tell us what melodies little Frederic Chopin knew and what Stanisław Moniuszko hummed? We will invite the Warsaw Mermaid to join the fun! Together we will embark on a musical journey through the history and present day of Warsaw – full of sounds and rhythms. We will listen, dance and sing together.

Programme

Louise Farrenc Sextet in C major, Op. 40 (selection, arr. for saxophone quartet and piano) [13’]
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Allegro vivace
Fernande Decruck Pavane (arr. for saxophone quartet) [5’]
Juliette Dillon Le choix d’une fiancée (No. 5) from Contes fantastiques de Hoffmann (The Fantastic Tales of Hoffmann) for piano solo [3’]
Georges Bizet Farandole from the incidental music to the play L’Arlésienne by Alphonse Daudet (arr. for saxophone quartet Nicolas Herrouët) [3’]
Georges Bizet/Jun Nagao Carmen Rhapsody for saxophone quartet and piano [16’]

Concert description

While walking the streets of Paris in the 19th century, we would certainly have heard the shouting of boys selling newspapers, the neighing of horses, the singing coming from cafes and wine shops, the clatter of wheels and heels on the cobblestones. And we would undoubtedly have passed many more female composers than we might have assumed –  Victorine Louise Farrenc or Juliette Dillon, for example (to meet their younger colleague Fernande Decruck, we would have had to travel to the French capital only after World War I). Both romantic instrumentalists and authors disappeared into the darkness of history, not least because they died prematurely, both in their early thirties. Today, their music is happily being rediscovered. The choice of saxophone arrangements, while it may seem a bit exotic at first glance, is not at all random. Although the instrument was patented by Belgian Adolphe Sax, it began its career in Paris. It appealed to Georges Bizet, for example, who used it in the theater music for Alphonse Daudet’s  L’Arlésienne. Although the eponymous character never appears on stage, she is the keystone of the plot. The main character of the composer’s most famous opera is somewhat different – Carmen’s presence is downright overpowering to the men she encounters. Librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy have created here one of the most expressive women in the history of musical theater.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Fanny Hensel (Mendelssohn) Overture in C major, H-U.265 [10’]
Clara Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7 [23′]*
I. Allegro maestoso
II. Romanze: Andante non troppo con grazia
III. Finale: Allegro non troppo
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 [26′]**
I. Allegro molto appassionato
II. Andante – Allegretto non troppo
III. Allegro molto vivace

Concert description

Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn) and Clara Schumann (née Wieck) are two of the best-known female composers born in the first half of the 19th century. The fates of these women, however, could not be more different. While Clara lived to the age of seventy-seven, Fanny died suddenly at forty-two. Clara practiced her music in public and took her place among the best pianists of her time, and her compositions were highly regarded as well. Fanny’s work and performance, on the other hand, remained mostly in the private sphere, although it was an open secret that some songs – published under the name of her more famous brother – were written by her. Clara raised eight children, and it was mainly (and, after her husband’s death, exclusively) her who supported the family. Fanny had one son, and her social position meant that not only did she not have to worry about winning bread, but it would have been considered inappropriate. Fanny left behind only one purely orchestral work, Overture in C Major. She also composed an oratorio and several cantatas, but her songs are most appreciated. Similarly, Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor is the composer’s only completed work with orchestra (she wrote the piano part for herself, of course). The premiere of the full version was conducted by Felix Mendelssohn, who played an important role in the lives of both women. Fanny trusted him implicitly in musical matters. Although he encouraged her to write, he discouraged her from publishing.  Mendelssohn and Clara became friends, performed each other’s works and played music together.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Concert description

How big and beautiful Warsaw is! Our city has a long history and hides many legends, but it is also constantly changing. The Mermaid has been carefully watching her city from the current of the Vistula River for a long time. Maybe she could tell us what kind of music Warsaw people listened to and what Warsaw women sang in the days of King Stanislaus? Or maybe she could tell us what melodies little Frederic Chopin knew and what Stanisław Moniuszko hummed? We will invite the Warsaw Mermaid to join the fun! Together we will embark on a musical journey through the history and present day of Warsaw – full of sounds and rhythms. We will listen, dance and sing together.

Programme

Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor From the New World, Op. 95, B.178 (selection) [12’]
IV. Allegro con fuoco
Maurice Ravel Orchestral Suite Ma mère l’Oye, M.62 (selection) [8’]
III. Laideronette, Impératrice des Pagodes
V. Le jardin féerique
Igor Stravinsky Music from the ballet The Firebird K010 (selection) [7’]
Lullaby
Finale
Jules Massenet Méditation for violin and orchestra, entr’acte from act II of the opera Thaïs [7’]
Edward Elgar March No. 1 in D major from Pomp and Circumstance, Op. 39 [6’]
Claude-Michel Schönberg I Dreamed a Dream from act I of the musical Les Misérables (arr. Kazimierz Dąbrowski) [4’]**
Edward Elgar Nimrod: Adagio (var. IX) from Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 [4’]

Programme

Original compositions based on mystical and secular love poems from the 7^th–13^th c. and contemporary Arab (Andalusian, Syrian) and Persian authors: Majnun, Ibn Zaydun, Wallada, Rumi, Adonis

Concert description

How to combine inspiration from Syrian music, Lebanese singer Fairuz and French chansonist Édith Piaf, classical vocal training and skills in traditional Arabic singing? These are just some of the sources from which Waed Bouhassoun – ethnomusicologist, composer, singer, instrumentalist, ambassador of Syrian music, as well as other Arab communities – successfully draws. She performs solo, in various ensembles and collaborates with Jordi Savall, for example, as an instructor in the Orpheus XXI – Music for Life and Dignity project, which supports refugees and migrants.

In a solo recital consisting of original compositions, Waed Bouhassoun will sing and accompany herself on the oud, an Arabic lute. She received her first instrument from her father when she was just seven years old. She will reach for mystical and secular poetry from the vast pre-Islamic repertoire, as well as ancient (7th-13th century) and contemporary Arabic and Persian authors. The recital will thus be a return to the country of her childhood by means of the most intimate of the arts: “The sounds I play on my oud – which I never part with – are for me the words that make up the language with which I can express my joy, my love, my pain and that of my country, which is suffering in its split. Music is fundamental to me. It gives rhythm to every moment of my day, my life. I live by it and for it. I cannot imagine existence without it. It connects me to my land, my family, my friends. It is everything to me.”

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Gustav Mahler Adagietto: Sehr langsam (mov. IV) from Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor [10’]
Leonard Bernstein Ḥalil for flute and chamber orchestra [16’]**
Leonard Bernstein For Felicia Montealegre for piano [2’]*
Aleksandra Kaca but the rain is full of ghosts tonight for flute and orchestra (world premiere) [16’]**

Concert description

Inspired by the remarkable figure of Felicia Montealegre, who stood in the shadow of her husband, legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, we will hear a musical story composed around a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

I only know that summer sang in me

Slowly and unhurriedly, we will move from lively rhythms and bright evenings to the rain tapping in the gloom, from the irrepressible song of life to the pain of quiet loss. And at the center of the program – the story of women, listening to the silence falling over them, women stretched between eras, continents and contexts.

Leonard Bernstein will scatter music in the nocturnal Halil, playing between life and death, between tender tonality and expressive dodecaphony. Following the final, ephemeral sound of the three flutes from Halil, we will plunge into Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto. This is one of those great confessions of love that changed the history of music, which under Bernstein’s baton reached a dimension of “timelessness.”

A little while, that in me sings no more.

Before the evening rain overflows with memories, composer Aleksandra Kaca will play Bernstein’s miniature For Felicia Montealegre, as if looking for inspiration. Finally, we will listen to the premiere of but the rain is full of ghosts tonight. In the composition, fragments of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poetry are sewn into multi-layered, ephemeral structures of flutes, harp, strings and percussion.

– Ania Karpowicz

***

Edna St. Vincent Millay, What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (1920)
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.

 Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

Felicia Montealegre and Leonard Bernstein’s relationship is not only a love story, but also a constant decision about the right to give or take away one’s voice. Sometimes in spite of oneself. “Why do you fold your lips into a smile when you want to cry, say yes when you don’t feel like it completely” ¹⁾. That voice is the flute part, which resounds among the delicate, lacy textures in the orchestra.

And along with St. Vincent Millay’s poem, which the flutist recites, it sets in motion a whole series of memories.

¹⁾ Kukon (feat. Kwiatek haze), „Wbrew sobie” (prod. Ka-Meal, Aleksandra Kaca) from the album „Kraków, Marzec 2025”

– Aleksandra Kaca

Programme

Dohun Lee Nakhwa – Falling Flower Petals II for two violins, viola, cello and piano (European premiere, 2025) [8’]
Antonín Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81 [40’]
I. Allegro ma non tanto
II. Dumka: Andante con moto
III. Scherzo. Furiant: Molto vivace
IV. Finale: Allegro

Concert description

Adapting works to fit circumstances and needs has not been strange throughout history. Only the 19th century, with its cult of genius and belief in the inviolability of the composer’s intentions, brought an aversion to alterations and strengthened the attachment to the “original.” Transcriptions and other elaborations, however, never disappeared. Was Dohun Lee guided by practical considerations when he decided to develop a second version of Nakhwa’s piece, Falling Flower Petals? The first was intended for pansori, violin, gayageum, piano and electronics. Pansori is a Korean vocal-instrumental genre and performance style, while gayageum is a native type of zither. The new version of the composition has a purely instrumental cast, so the underlying poem will not be heard this time. Wanting to escape the classical-romantic associations that the term “piano quintet” carries, the author stipulated that the cast of the piece be broken down into individual instruments. Lee drew on the poetry of Cho Chi-hun, who contemplates loss in an atmospheric image of falling petals. The composer admits that his goal was somewhat different: “I tried to express musically that the end is not an end, but a new beginning.” Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, on the other hand, was created as a side effect of a planned reworking. The composer was so dissatisfied with his first piano quintet that he destroyed the notes. Years later he decided to improve it; the score was fortunately saved by his friend. However, while working on it, Dvořák decided that it was better to simply write the second one from scratch… He then returned to the folk inspirations that had accompanied him since his youth, sometimes surprisingly combining them with an imaginative narrative. Already in the very first part one can hear both song and dance, and a tone of ballad poetry.  Time has shown that this particular quintet has become one of the most famous works not only by Dvořák, but also of the entire genre.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

***

Dohun Lee – Nakhwa – Falling Flower Petals II for two violins, viola, cello and piano

Inspiracją dla tego utworu był wiersz Nakhwa (낙화) autorstwa Cho Chi-huna (1920–1968) – koreańskiego poety, krytyka i aktywisty.

Nakhwa budzi współczucie dla utraconego kraju na widok więdnącego kwiatu. Jednak w tym utworze starałem się muzycznie przekazać, że koniec nie jest tak naprawdę końcem, ale nowym początkiem.

– Dohun Lee

Concert co-financed by Daegu Concert House

Programme

Caroline Shaw Entr’acte (Polish premiere) [11’]
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 [31’]
I. Adagio – Allegro vivace
II. Adagio non lento
III. Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto – Allegro di molto
IV. Presto – Adagio non lento
Ori Ron Tune In (selection) [10’]
II. Amsterdam #4
III. Allegro satirico

Concert description

Before “a composer” became a separate profession, those who wrote music were also, as a rule, its regular practitioners. Although, over time, narrower and narrower specializations have emerged in the art of sound, and today we appreciate in authors the fact that they know all instruments inside out, it is still the case that they dedicate their best works to those on which they themselves played. Martin has chosen string quartets whose composers could themselves perform in them (in one case, they even will!). Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy primarily played keyboards, but also the violin, Caroline Shaw, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner, is also a violinist, and Ori Ron is a cellist – part of the Martin string quartet. The artists are also connected by their youth. At the time of writing String Quartet in A minor, the first of his life, Mendelssohn was only eighteen, Ron composed Tune In at the age of twenty-six, and Shaw’s Entr’acte was written when the composer was twenty-nine. So maybe it is worth listening to these works not by comparing a 19th-century quartet with a 21st-century one, but by looking for the energy of youth?

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Gustav Holst St. Paul’s Suite, Op. 29 No. 2, for string orchestra [13’]
Jig 
Ostinato
Intermezzo
Finale (The Dargason)
Bert Appermont Colors for trombone and symphony orchestra [16′]*
I. Yellow
II. Red
III. Blue
IV. Green
Stanisław Moniuszko Fantastic Overture Fairy Tale (Conte d’hiver, arr. Witold Rowicki) [9’]

Programme

Claude Bolling Jazzomania [5’]
Django Reinhardt Nuages (arr. Vince Norman) [4’]
Jacques Prévert/Joseph Kosma Les feuilles mortes (Autumn Leaves, arr. Ted Heath) [5’]
George Gershwin An American in Paris Blues (arr. Eddie Sauter) [4’]
Michel Legrand The Windmills of Your Mind (arr. Eric Richards) [6’]
Sidney Bechet Petite fleur (arr. Neal Hefti) [3’]
Claude Bolling Here Comes the Blues [4’]
Vernon Duke April in Paris (arr. Sammy Nestico) [4’]
George Gershwin Strike Up the Band (arr. Sammy Nestico) [4’]

Concert description

To Europeans who could not go to the United States, jazz was revealed during World War I, when it was spread in France by soldiers from overseas who stationed there. The real boom for the music, of course, did not erupt until after the war, when society sought to unwind after the catastrophe ending the old world, and also saw that some things – like the position of women – had changed for the better. Jazz was the music of optimism, of the future, of freedom. Paris was vibrant and attracted artists, such as the Lost Generation of writers and composers in love with neoclassicism. This embodiment of the City of Light, as seen through the eyes of a fascinated foreigner, was immortalized by George Gershwin in his poem An American in Paris. Another newcomer from the United States who visited the French capital (and even wrote a ballet for Diaghilev!) was Vernon Duke, and his April in Paris may have been written out of sentiment for that city, said to be charming especially in spring. Sidney Bechet also came from America, but he was not immediately able to stay in Paris for good. His first tour ended in prison – and later deportation – for trying to shoot a man who insulted him. However, he hit a random woman with a bullet… Joseph Kosma, on the other hand, emigrated to France from Hungary. In his adopted homeland, he was active as a respected songwriter and film musician. Soon, native jazz artists, such as Michel Legrand and Claude Bolling, also appeared in France.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Franz Schubert String Quintet in C major, D.956 [55’]
I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Adagio
III. Scherzo: Presto – Trio: Andante sostenuto
IV. Allegretto

Concert description

Although Vienna was one of the most musical cities in Europe in the 19th century, even there not all composers enjoyed only fame and glory. The quality of written works did not always translate into commercial success. Like many of Franz Schubert’s works, his String Quintet in C Major did not live to see either an edition or a public performance during the author’s lifetime. Although, in this case, it may have been partly due to the fact that the composer died only a few months after finishing the work. The publisher, Heinrich Albert Probst, was not interested in the work, directly responding to the author that he would rather get some new songs or piano compositions that were in greater demand. After his death, another publishing house bought the manuscript, but also did not include it in its offer. Was it because the lineup was unusual? After all, instead of an additional viola, it included a second cello. In the end, the Quintet waited a quarter of a century for publication. Schubert’s late works are puzzling – their narrative meanders, the form is hard to grasp, serenity mixes with desperation. Maciej Negrey poetically noted that: “They give us a glimpse of the face of a wanderer who knows that the end of his road is only too near. Yet so used is he to wandering that he cannot stop; instead, he hedges and, forsaking the matters of this world, he finds sanctuary in unknown spaces away from the chiming of clocks.” Shortly after writing the Quintet, Schubert had to say goodbye not only to Vienna, but to the whole temporal world.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Overture to the opera The Magic Flute, K.620 [7’]
Henryk Wieniawski Fantaisie brillante, Op. 20, on themes from the opera Faust by Charles Gounod [17’]*

Jean-Baptiste Arban Carnival of Venice for cornet and orchestra (arr. for trumpet and orchestra Marcin Grabosz) [7’]*
Radosław Broda Little London Symphony (premiere) [12’]
I. Westminster Overture
II. In the Midst of London
III. God Save the King

Programme

Isaac Albéniz (arr. Sotiris Athanasiou)
Prelude from España, Op. 165 [3’]
El Puerto from Iberia [5’]
Robert de Visée Prelude and Chaconne (arr. Elodie Brzustowski) [5’]
Napoléon Coste Le départ, dramatic fantasy, Op. 31 [9’]
Agustín Barrios Waltz in D minor, Op. 8 No. 3 [4’]
Benoît Mussard Gods of Olympus (selection) [4’]
II. Athena and Ares
VIII. Hermes and Dionysos
Elisabeth Angot N40 [6’]
Marek Pasieczny Tate Sonata [10’]
I. Ad un tratto
II. Furioso
III. Ostinato
IV. Variations and Finale

Concert description

The origins of the guitar are lost in the mists of history. It is related to the vast family of lutes and to the Spanish vihuella, but it is not exactly known how. One idea is that it may be a descendant of the Greek cithar. It’s already easy to recognize the distinctive shape in Renaissance instruments, but the past 150 years have brought revolutionary changes in construction and playing technique. Sotiris Athanasiou stops in his recital at several places important for the guitar. First, in the second half of the 19th century in Spain, with which it has become inextricably intertwined – thanks, for example, to flamenco, the great builders, performers and composers who wrote for it. Interestingly, Isaac Albéniz was not one of them, as he did not dedicate any piece to the guitar – Athanasiou prepared his own arrangements. However, two collections of guitar pieces were published by Louis XIV’s musician Robert de Visée, who entertained the heir to the French throne with his art, and lulled the king himself to sleep with his music. The lineage of performers and composers in one person is established in the history of the guitar, belonging, for example, to Miguel Llobet or Agustín Barrios, and today – Benoît Mussard or Marek Pasieczny. Athanasiou also cooperated with French composer Elisabeth Angot, who wrote N40, commissioned by him in 2024, about which she says: “When we met with Sotiris to discuss the project, he said he wanted ‘something that comes from very far away,’ not knowing that most of my compositions begin with exactly such a clue written in the score. I immediately heard the beginning of the piece, natural flageolets, like an echo of ancient Greek music of the spheres…”.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622 [26’]*
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondo: Allegro
Witold Lutosławski Little Suite for symphony orchestra [14’]
Fife
Hurra Polka
Song
Dance
Jacques Offenbach Operetta Orphée aux enfers (selection) [10’]
Overture
Can-can
Jean Sibelius Humoresque in G minor, Op. 89 No. 4 [4’]

Programme

Bedřich Smetana Symphonic poem Šárka from the cycle My Fatherland (Má vlast), JB.1:112/3 [9’]
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 [40’]
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio
III. Allegretto grazioso
IV. Allegro ma non troppo

Concert description

Of the Czech legends that inspired Bedřich Smetana’s My Fatherland, the one about Šárka is the bloodiest. After the death of the legendary founder of Prague, Libuše (to whom the composer dedicated the opera), the women led by Vlasta waged war against the ruler’s widower. Šárka tricked – pretending to be a damsel in distress – sedated and led to the slaughter of an entire troop of Přemysl’s knights in revenge for her lover’s infidelity. Of the entire cycle of symphonic poems, this one has terms of tempo and expression indicating the greatest emotions, such as con fuoco (“with fire”) – in the episode corresponding to Šárka’s anger, and con calore (“fervently”), when the leader of the knights, Ctirad, falls in love with the heroine, who is about to lull him to sleep with poisoned honey and kill him. My Fatherland, among other works, earned Smetana the title of the father of Czech music; Antonín Dvořák would probably have been its, much younger, godfather, then. Of his symphonies, the Eighth is perhaps the most cheerful, thrilling in its liveliness and grandeur. The composer wrote it on a wave of joy over his acceptance into the Bohemian Academy of Science, Literature and Arts. It was created at a frenetic pace in less than three months. He even had a surfeit of ideas at the time “Melodies are pouring out of me. (…)If only one could write them down straight away! But there—I must go slowly, only keep pace with my hand.” The idyllic, earnest pastorality of the piece is only occasionally interrupted by a darker tone, and the military coda of the whole thing has nothing menacing about it – rather, it’s almost a circus parade in gala costumes.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Johann Sebastian Bach
Chaconne from Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (arr. for piano left hand Johannes Brahms) [15’]
Toccata G major, BWV 916 [9’]
[Presto]
Adagio
Fuga: Allegro e presto
Keyboard Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826 [22’]
Sinfonia: Grave adagio – Andante – Allegro
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Rondeaux
Capriccio

Concert description

The story of Johann Sebastian Bach’s life is usually told through traveling with him from Eisenach to Leipzig, with stops in Lüneburg, Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, Weimar and Köthen, and excursions to at least Lübeck and Dresden. In Weimar, Bach probably wrote most of his organ music – Duke Wilhelm Ernest of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach hired him as organist. Perhaps during Bach’s first stay in that city, when he held the position of violinist, five toccatas for keyboard instruments were written; among them, the G major BWV 916. In Köthen, the composer was particularly preoccupied with secular instrumental music –  sonatas and partitas for solo violin (such as BWV 1004), cello suites or Brandenburg Concertos. The Calvinist chapel didn’t provide many opportunities for rich settings of services. Bach’s employer, Prince Leopold, valued music, and bought the composer out from his uncle, offering a promotion to Kapellmeister and a 400 thaler raise (family ambitions and animosities were also at play here). Leipzig, in turn, is where most of the cantatas were written – their preparation was required by the cantor position he held there from 1723 until his death in 1750 – as well as passions and oratorios. However, there are works in Bach’s oeuvre that do not quite fit into this chronological-geographical narrative. An example of these are the six keyboard partitas, which include BWV 826 – works that are essentially suites, i.e. collections of dances, published in the Leipzig era under the Clavier-Übung (literally, Keyboard Exercise) title.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Traditional mystical (Maronite, Sufi) and secular songs and poems from Aleppo (Syria) set to music by: Waed Bouhassoun, Aleppine composer Omer el-Batsh and Ottoman composer Tanburi Cemil Bey

Concert description

Syria has an opulent musical heritage, dating back to the Aramaeans and Chaldeans, related to the traditions of other Middle Eastern countries and peoples. Similarities include, for example, instruments, the use of microtones (i.e., distances between notes of less than a semitone, foreign to Western practice until the 20th century) or the system of melodic formulas known as maqams, which – in a nutshell – can be considered the equivalent of Western scales. At the beginning of the 20th century, after the end of the Ottoman occupation, the country’s culture flourished, and it began to be inspired by European trends, but also to appreciate its own heritage more, which, with interruptions caused by successive historical turmoil, continues to this day. Waed Bouhassoun, although she began playing the oud as early as seven years old, did not study exclusively Syrian music. She studied at a conservatory in Damascus, where traditional singing was not taught. She began performing in France and studying ethnomusicology, then came to Aleppo to train with local masters. Together with Neşet Kutas, a Turkish percussionist active in France, they have dedicated their concert to this very city, and they announce it as follows: “Aleppo, with a history marked by wars and conflicts, is one of the world’s oldest cities. The influences of different cultures intersect in it, East and West meet in it. Waed Bouhassoun takes us on a journey to her homeland, through music discovering the threads that connect family and friends, identity and hope for a better future.”

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Olivier Messiaen Le Traquet rieur (book 7, mov. 12) from Catalogue d’oiseaux [10’]
Claude Debussy Estampes [15’]
1. Pagodes
2. La soirée dans Grenade
3. Jardins sous la pluie
Toru Takemitsu Rain Tree Sketch [5’]
Maurice Ravel Miroirs (selection)
II. Oiseaux tristes [3’]
III. Une barque sur l’ocean [6’]
Toshio Hosokawa Haiku for Pierre Boulez [4’]
Claude Debussy L’isle joyeuse [5’]

Concert description

A direct flight from Paris to Tokyo takes about thirteen hours, the cities are almost 10,000 kilometers apart. Japanese and French piano music, especially in the 20th century, are much closer. Is this the result of the fashion for all things Oriental, prevailing at the end of the 19th century, which also influenced later works? Claude Debussy was fascinated by Far Eastern woodcuts, as was Maurice Ravel, whose home was decorated with Japanese prints, and whose bookcase contained a monograph on them. Olivier Messiaen directed his thoughts mainly to India, but the culture of the Land of the Cherry Blossom influenced him as well – after a visit to Japan, he wrote Sept haïkaï, and in his opera Saint François d’Assise, he annotated one of three ondes Martenot parts with the command to sound like the Japanese bush warbler (uguisu), a small bird singing to announce the coming of spring. Inspiration works the other way, too. Self-taught Toru Takemitsu considered Debussy and Messiaen to be his masters, although his first exposure to French music was a song called Parlez-moi d’amour (Talk to Me About Love) heard from an officer’s gramophone during the war. Toshio Hosokawa was educated in Tokyo and Germany, but he dedicated his haiku to Pierre Boulez, the influential French composer and conductor… At the end of the day, what unites the music of these artists in reception is their love of nature and their ability to transfer it into musical pastels – regardless of the style and sound language, as well as the function that nature plays in these very distant cultures.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Kuba Krzewiński EP for sign language poet with gran cassa and a double bass, act I of play EP (production: TR Warszawa, Automatophone Foundation 2024) [15’]*
Hubert Zemler, Robert Piotrowicz Music fragments for the play Bye, Bye Butterfly for percussion ensemble and electronics (production: Automatophone Foundation 2025) [25’]**

Concert description

“Opera for the Deaf” is an interdisciplinary series implemented since 2017. The project includes performances, music, film and theater workshops, lectures on Deaf culture, online video columns in Polish Sign Language. The project creates a platform for Deaf and hearing people to work together to create a new language of artistic communication.

The concert will be a unique opportunity to experience – to hear, see and feel – two works of the cycle during one evening. The featured performances are the result of collaborations between Deaf artists and contemporary music composers.

***

Kuba Krzewiński – EP for sign language poet with gran cassa and a double bass, act I of play EP (production: TR Warszawa, Automatophone Foundation 2024)

EP na poetę migowego z wielkim bębnem i kontrabasistę, I akt spektaklu EP (produkcja: TR Warszawa, Fundacja Automatophone 2024)

EP – a short musical recording

ep (sign language) – 1. weird, unpleasant; 2. (to feel) uncomfortable. ep is the notation of a sign created by the Deaf community (of Warsaw), which has no equivalent in spoken language.

What is “weird,” who is “weird” and when? How do we determine that which is supposedly “normal” and that which deviates from the supposed “normal”? Is “weird” dangerous, or quite the opposite – is it a refuge for those who can’t express themselves in a different way?  Why is “weird” perceived as a threat in society, while “normality” can be risky in theatre and contemporary art?

Hubert Zemler, Robert Piotrowicz – Fragmenty muzyki do spektaklu Bye, Bye Butterfly na zespół perkusyjny i elektronikę (produkcja: Fundacja Automatophone 2025)

We stole the title of the piece from Pauline Oliveros (along with all her thoughts on listening). The original was a feminist electronic fantasy based on the symbolism surrounding perhaps the most famous of Puccini’s heroines, Cio-Cio-San. Our butterfly is not a woman. Instead, it is – according to its biological nature and the semantics of Polish Sign Language – Deaf. Or deaf – because devoid of acoustic vibrations – is his entire world. How to talk about sounds, listening and music in it? We tried to use percussion and low-frequency vibrations for this. Because sometimes you listen smarter from the outside, even if you can’t hear.

– Michał Mendyk

Programme

Jazz improvisations on (and referring to) music by Johann Sebastian Bach:
Johann Sebastian Bach Das wohltemperierte Klavier (selection)
Prelude in B-flat major, BWV 866
Prelude in G minor, BWV 861
Oscar Peterson Bach Suite
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Bach’s Blues
Paul Lay Blues
Johann Sebastian Bach
Jesus bleibet meine Freude, chorale from cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147
Erbarme dich, aria from St Matthew Passion, BWV 244
Paul Lay Bach’s Groove
Johann Sebastian Bach Musette in D major, BWV Anh. 126

Concert description

Although it goes without saying that Johann Sebastian could not have experienced jazz, he is sometimes jokingly credited with being the first jazzman (or the second, as he competes with Claudio Monteverdi for that title, according to others). The Leipzig cantor began to inspire twentieth-century jazz musicians early on; the Play Bach programs of Jacques Loussier’s trio, for example, paving the way for the Third Stream, became famous, and of the numerous Polish ones worth mentioning are the Bach Rewrite by Piotr “Pianohooligan” Orzechowski, Marcin Masecki and Capella Cracoviensis. Joining the ranks of musicians transforming their fascination with the works of the author of Das wohltemperierte Klavier into their own projects has recently been Paul Lay with his trio (Lay – piano, Clemens van der Feen – double bass, Donald Kontomanou – drums). In Bach’s Groove, he pays tribute not only to the Baroque master, but also to Miles Davies and his Bag’s Groove, and, additionally, places the legendary Oscar Peterson’s Bach Suite, recorded in 1986, at the center, which is rarely heard live today. What attracted Lay to Bach’s music? The fact that his pieces “are the most rhythmic of all.”

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Georges Bizet Opera Carmen (selection)
Prelude to act IV [3’]
Habanera L’amour est un oiseau rebelle, Carmen’s aria from act I [5’]^‡
Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante, Micaëla’s aria from act III [6’]*
Jules Massenet Méditation for violin and orchestra, entr’acte from act II of the opera Thaïs [6’]
Jacques Offenbach Elle a fui, la tourterelle!, Antonia’s aria from act III of the opera The Tales of Hoffmann (Les Contes
d’Hoffmann) [5’]*
Jules Massenet Les larmes qu’on ne pleure pas, Charlotte’s aria from act III of the opera Werther [3’]^‡
Léo Delibes Dôme épais le jasmin, Lakmé and Malika’s duet (Flower Duet) from act I of the opera Lakmé [5’]*^‡
Camille Saint-Saëns Opera Samson and Dalila, Op. 47 (selection)
Bacchanale from act II [8’]
Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix, Dalila’s aria from act II [7’]^‡
Charles Gounod Waltz Je veux vivre dans ce rêve, Julia’s aria from act I of the opera Romeo and Juliet [5’]*
Jacques Offenbach Barcarolle Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour, Juliet and Nicholas’s duet from act IV of the opera The Tales of Hoffmann [5’]*^‡

Concert description

Dedicated to Institut Français in Poland on its 100^th anniversary

The most representative place to experience and practice music in 19th century Paris was, of course, the opera house. An evening at the Salle Le Peletier, the Salle Favart or the Théâtre Lyrique meant reveling in the art, but sometimes also technological innovations (the Salle Le Peletier, for example, was the first French theater to install gas lighting!), and always – a social gathering. Although full operas were usually staged in theaters, and selections of pieces were more often performed in salons accompanied by piano excerpts or small ensembles, there were also large galas consisting of excerpts from various works with a full orchestra. Like today, they often had an occasional character. One of the most memorable took place 150 years ago, on January 5, 1875, when, after years of construction and sometimes utterly insane adventures (including confusing the decoration of two halls and dismantling scaffolding the day before the opening), the Palais Garnier, the new edifice of the Paris Opera House, was ceremonially inaugurated. Excerpts from works by Daniel Auber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, a ballet by Léon Delibes, among others, were then performed, and, unfortunately, excerpts from Charles Gounod’s Faust and Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet had to be abandoned due to the indisposition of one of the sopranos. Who knows, maybe the music of the most beautiful French operas, dimmed lights and the power of imagination will transport us directly from Moniuszko Auditorium to the 19th century City of Light (La Ville Lumière)?

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Maurycy Moszkowski 4 Morceaux for violin and piano, Op. 82 [19′]
Les Nymphes
Caprice
Mélodie
Humoresque
Aleksander Tansman Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in D major [20’]
I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Mélodie slave: Andante espressivo
III. Intermezzo scherzando: Presto possibile
IV. Finale: Allegro giusto
Miłosz Magin Andante for violin and piano [7’]
Mieczysław Weinberg Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes for violin and piano, Op. 47 No. 3 [11’]

Concert description

Emigration, exile or refugeeism were not uncommon among Polish artists. Annexations, wars, communism, the search for a better life or a more favourable environment for creativity – drove musicians in different directions. The works of many of them, due to, for example, the prosaic absence of authors in Poland, important before the times of globalization, were often discovered quite late. Composers were strongly attracted to cosmopolitan, artistic Paris, especially in the first half of the 20th century. As late as the end of the 19th century, to the City of Light moved Moritz Moszkowski – a pianist and author of music highly regarded in his time, especially virtuoso and salon music, of which 4 Morceaux is a good example. One might think that France was Alexander Tansman’s destiny from birth – his parents loved the country so much that Polish and French were spoken in their home, and the composer, with full conviction – and exquisite results! – inscribed his work in the triumphant Parisian interwar neoclassicism. Tansman’s music gained immense popularity in the West during his lifetime, but was not well received in Poland – neither politically nor stylistically. A somewhat similar path – from Łódź to Paris – was taken by Miłosz Magin, an award-winning pianist who has recently been rediscovered as a composer. Quite different and much more painful, marked among other things by the death of his family, was the wandering of Mieczysław Wajnberg, whose war tragedy exiled him to the East, to the USSR.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Concert description

Destination: Planet Ravel! There we expect to meet the cosmic cat Panakota, who will take us on a magical musical journey. Together we shall discover a world of sounds, colours and fairy tales hidden in the works of the extraordinary composer Maurice Ravel. Perhaps our guide will even fall under the spell and turn into a fairy herself? Rumour has it that two mischievous little dancers will be joining her. Fortunately, there will also be some familiar faces: our Warsaw orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, is a frequent visitor to Planet Ravel. We shall hear them perform Bolero, music from the ballet Daphnis and Chloé, and perhaps even the famous Pavane or one of the tales from Mother Goose. What an adventure it will be!

Concert description

We invite you on a fairy-tale journey back in time to royal Cracow. Long, long ago, in the castle on Wawel Hill, there lived a very musical king, Sigismund. He made sure that the sounds of lutes, flutes, viols and harpsichords could always be heard in the courtyard, the palace chambers and the arcaded galleries. Let us imagine how the king’s ladies-in-waiting and courtiers once sang and danced, and how the townsfolk amused themselves to the lively rhythm of their favourite krakowiak. In our story there will also be the bugle call from the tower of St Mary’s Basilica, the frolicsome Lajkonik, and the rumblings of the Wawel Dragon!

Programme

Jean-Baptiste Arban Carnival of Venice for cornet and orchestra (arr. for trumpet and orchestra Marcin Grabosz) [7’]*
Radosław Broda Little London Symphony (premiere) [12’]
I.Westminster Overture
II. In the Midst of London
III. God Save the King
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Overture to the opera Don Giovanni K.527 [7’]
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor From the New World, Op. 95, B.178 (selection) [11’]
IV. Allegro con fuoco
Georg Philipp Telemann Concerto polonois in G major for string orchestra [8’]
I. Dolce
II. Allegro
III. Largo
IV. Allegro
Johann Strauss II Polka Pizzicato for string orchestra [3’]

Programme

Ludwig van Beethoven Overture from the incidental music to the tragedy Coriolan by Heinrich Joseph von Collin, Op. 62 [8’]
Gioacchino Rossini Overture to the opera The Barber of Seville [9’]
Georges Bizet Farandole from the Symphonic Suite No. 2 from L’Arlésienne (publ. 1879, arr. Ernest Guiraud) [4’]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Allegro (mov. I) from Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622 [12’]*
Jacques Offenbach Operetta Orphée aux enfers (selection) [10’]
Overture
Can-can

Concert description

We invite you on a fairy-tale journey back in time to royal Cracow. Long, long ago, in the castle on Wawel Hill, there lived a very musical king, Sigismund. He made sure that the sounds of lutes, flutes, viols and harpsichords could always be heard in the courtyard, the palace chambers and the arcaded galleries. Let us imagine how the king’s ladies-in-waiting and courtiers once sang and danced, and how the townsfolk amused themselves to the lively rhythm of their favourite krakowiak. In our story there will also be the bugle call from the tower of St Mary’s Basilica, the frolicsome Lajkonik, and the rumblings of the Wawel Dragon!

Programme

Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782) Allegretto (mov. III) from Keyboard Sonata in C minor, Op. 5 no. 6 [5’]**
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, K.107/3 (arr. Keyboard Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 5 No. 4 by Johann Christian Bach) [11’]**
I. Allegro
II. Allegretto
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788) Trio Sonata in F major for viola, bass recorder and basso continuo, Wq.163 [10’]
I. Un poco andante
II. Allegretto
III. Allegro
Andreas Lidl (1740–1789) Adagio cantabile (mov. II) from Sonata in E major for viola da gamba and cello [3’]*
Carl Friedrich Abel (1723–1787) Viola da Gamba Concerto in G major, A9:2 [16’]*
I. Moderato
II. Adagio ma non troppo
III. Allegro

Concert description

In the second half of the 17th century, London’s musical life exploded. This was partly because, after a period of civil war and Puritan rule, which was hostile to public art (fortunately more to theater than to music), Charles II ascended the throne. He rebuilt the royal ensembles and supported artists. Admittedly, these were mainly artists brought in from France… This led to conflict between Louis Grabu, who was favored by the monarch, and John Banister, an Englishman who was relegated to the background. The latter focused on earning a living outside the court, initiating some of the first regular, ticketed public concerts in Europe.

In the following century, Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel were among the most important organizers of such events in London. The Arte dei Suonatori ensemble refers to these very meetings, introducing into its program beloved in England viola da gamba, of which Abel was a virtuoso, and the historical piano, which was gaining popularity thanks to Johann Christian (known as “the London Bach” to distinguish him from his father and brothers). The program will also feature compositions by his older brother, the Berlin Bach, i.e. Carl Philipp Emanuel, the viola da gamba virtuoso Andreas Lidl, as well as an arrangement of Johann Christian’s sonata by the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who learned the craft of composition by transcribing his master’s work for solo instrument and orchestra.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K.467 [26’]
I. Allegro (cadenza: Radu Lupu)
II. Andante
III. Allegro vivace assai
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K.550 [35’]
I. Molto allegro
II. Andante
III. Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio
IV. Allegro assai

Concert description

The Piano Concerto in C major, K. 467, is one of the most famous works of its kind in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s oeuvre. It is perhaps surpassed only by the D minor, K. 466, written in the same year, 1785. Its optimistic mood – determined by a military, energetic beginning and sealed by an expansive, virtuoso finale revealing folk echoes – only occasionally gives way to a more violent or melancholic mood. This is most evident in the middle Andante, whose pulsating accompaniment adds a touch of anxiety even to the sweetest violin melody (introduced at the very beginning), and in the sudden minor episode of the first Allegro movement, where a “sighing” motif appears – it will return three years later in one of his last three symphonies: G minor K.550. This is one of only two minor works of this genre in Mozart’s oeuvre, and one of the most moving in his entire output. It is hard to believe that in the 19th century this symphony was sometimes denied depth and authenticity…

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Concert description

We invite you on a fairy-tale journey back in time to royal Cracow. Long, long ago, in the castle on Wawel Hill, there lived a very musical king, Sigismund. He made sure that the sounds of lutes, flutes, viols and harpsichords could always be heard in the courtyard, the palace chambers and the arcaded galleries. Let us imagine how the king’s ladies-in-waiting and courtiers once sang and danced, and how the townsfolk amused themselves to the lively rhythm of their favourite krakowiak. In our story there will also be the bugle call from the tower of St Mary’s Basilica, the frolicsome Lajkonik, and the rumblings of the Wawel Dragon!

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Overture to the opera The Magic Flute, K.620 [7’]
Henryk Wieniawski Fantaisie brillante, Op. 20, on themes from the opera Faust by Charles Gounod [17’]*
Stanisław Moniuszko Overture to the opera Halka [9’]
George Gershwin Overture to musical Girl Crazy [6’]

Programme

Edward Elgar March No. 1 in D major from Pomp and Circumstance, Op. 39 [6’] 
Jules Massenet Méditation for violin and orchestra, entr’acte from act II of the opera Thaïs [7’]
Maurice Ravel Orchestral Suite Ma mère l’Oye, M.62 (selection) [8’]
III. Laideronette, Impératrice des Pagodes
V. Le jardin féerique

Edward Elgar Serenade in E minor, Op. 20 [12’]
I. Allegro piacevole
II. Larghetto
III. Allegretto
Peter Warlock Capriol Suite [11’]
Basse-Danse
Pavane
Tordion
Bransles
Pieds-en-l’air
Mattachins (Sword Dance)

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Julien Beautemps La flûte enchantée de poche (Pocket Magic Flute) [10′]
George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue (arr. Julien Beautemps) [16′]
Astor Piazzolla Libertango (arr. Sotiris Athanasiou) [7’]
Mikis Theodorakis Επιτάφιος (Epitaph) to words of a poem by Yannis Ritsos (selection and arr. Sotiris Athanasiou) [7′]
Μέρα Μαγιού (Mera Magiou – On first of May)
Βασίλεψες αστέρι μου (Vasilepses, asteri mou – You reigned, my star)
Chick Corea Spain (arr. Sotiris Athanasiou) [15’]

Concert description

The combination of guitar and accordion is not entirely uncommon in music, especially contemporary one. However, it is still rare enough that putting together a concert that does not consist entirely of tangos or avant-garde music requires considerable skill, imagination, and work, including the preparation of original arrangements and transcriptions. The program of Duo Argos (Julien Beautemps and Sotiris Athanasiou) includes music by composers from their countries of origin: France is represented by Maurice Ravel, while Greece – by Mikis Theodorakis, known (even to those who are unaware of it) as the composer of the music for the film Zorba the Greek, featuring what is probably the most famous incarnation of the sirtaki dance. Beautemps also miniaturized Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute and arranged George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, while Athanasiou arranged Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango. Together, they arranged Fazil Say’s Black Earth. In chamber music, harmonious cooperation is paramount!

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Antonio Vivaldi Four Seasons, Op. 8
Violin Concerto in E major Spring, R.269 [10’]
I. Allegro
II. Largo e pianissimo sempre
III. Danza pastorale: Allegro
Violin Concerto in G minor Summer, R.315 [10’]
I. Allegro non molto
II. Adagio – Presto
III. Tempo impetuoso d’Estate
Violin Concerto in F major Autumn, R.293 [10’]
I. Allegro
II. Adagio molto
III. Allegro
Violin Concerto in F minor Winter, R.297 [9’]
I. Allegro non molto
II. Largo
III. Allegro

Concert description

Nawet, jeśli różne metody odbioru w nas walczą – tym lepiej! W końcu Cztery pory roku pochodzą ze zbioru, w którego tytule znajduje się pojedynek – inwencji i harmonii (Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione).

Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are among the most frequently performed and recorded pieces of classical – not only early – music. They appear in films and commercials, and on “the best of classical music” compilations. Sometimes we take them for granted. We know them so well that we sometimes forget that they did not become famous without reason. It is worth returning to them with fresh ears, and who knows, especially when performed by Arte dei Suonatori, they may surprise us and make us fall in love with them all over again. There are many ways to listen to the concerts in this series. You can read the sonnets that Vivaldi preceded all his works with, and look for their musical equivalent. An additional level can be introduced by glancing at the composer’s notes in the score, for example: “the dog barks” in the second part of Spring or “the drunkards have fallen asleep” in the middle section of Autumn. You can be dazzled by the brilliant virtuosity of the solo violin part, especially in some of the craziest fast outer movements. Even if different methods of reception clash within us – so much the better! After all, The Four Seasons comes from a collection whose title refers to a duel – between invention and harmony (Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione).

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Ludwig van Beethoven Overture from the incidental music to the tragedy Coriolan by Heinrich Joseph von Collin, Op. 62 [8’]
Ferenc Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in D minor for orchestra S.359/2 (arr. of the piano version in C-sharp minor S.244/2 by Ferenc Liszt and Franz Doppler) [10’]
Vincenzo Monti Csárdás (arr. for violin, cello and orchestra Tomasz Chmiel) [5’]*
Gioacchino Rossini Overture to the opera The Barber of Seville [9’]
Waldemar Kazanecki Music from the film Noce i dnie (selection and arr. Tomasz Chmiel) [4’]
Johann Strauss jr Polka Unter Donner und Blitz [4’]
Edward Elgar March No. 1 in D major from Pomp and Circumstance, Op. 39 [6’]
Georges Bizet Farandole from the Symphonic Suite No. 2 from L’Arlésienne (publ. 1879, arr. Ernest Guiraud) [4’]

Programme

Astor Piazzolla
Estaciones Portñas (Four Seasons in Buenos Aires)
Verano Porteño (Summer) [10’]
Otoño Porteño (Autumn) [6’]
Invierno Porteño (Winter) [7’]
Primavera Porteña (Spring) [6’]
Ave Maria [5’]
Kurt Weill Tango Youkali (C’est pres qu’au bout du monde…), song from incidental music to play Marie Galante by Jacques Deval [5’]

Concert description

No one knows exactly where tango comes from or what its name means. Today – or rather, since the second half of the 19th century – tango has been an emblematic Argentine dance, inextricably linked with passion and love, combining violence with melancholy. At the height of classical tango’s popularity, i.e., in the interwar period, Kurt Weill used it in the music for a play based on Jacques Deval’s novel. The title character, Maria Galante, is kidnapped, abandoned, involved in prostitution and a spy scandal, and when she can finally afford to return to her native France, she is murdered. Despite its sensational plot, the show was a failure. However, the song Youkali (the title refers to the island of happiness that the main character dreams of) outlived the play and became a jazz standard. Unusually, Roger Fernay had to write lyrics to fit the existing melody. The revolution in the world of tango came later and was brought about by its most famous creator today, Astor Piazzolla. He moved away from the classical line-up, increasing the size and weight of the pieces. For his quintet – violin or viola, piano, electric guitar, double bass, and bandoneon – he wrote, for example, the collection Estaciones Porteñas, conceived as four separate compositions but often performed together. It begins with Summer, because that was the earliest to be written. Ave Maria, originally titled Tanti anni prima (“Many Years Ago”), is a moody piece from the soundtrack to the film Henry IV, directed by Marco Bellocchio.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Andrea Gabrieli (1510–1586) Motet O sacrum convivium for 5 voices from the collection Sacrae cantiones quinque vocum, liber primus (publ. Venice 1565)
Mikołaj Zieleński (ok. 1550–1615) Offertoria et communiones totius anni (selection, publ. Venice 1611)
Offertory Ortus de Polonia for 8 voices in 2 choirs
I choir: 2 cornetts, soprano, alto, tenor, bass, dulcian
II choir: mezzosoprano, tenor, 3 trombones, positive organ

Communio Gaudete iusti in Domino for 6 voices
soprano, mezzosoprano, alto, 2 tenors, bass, 2 cornetts, 3 trombones and dulcian

Offertory Posuisti, Domine, iniquitates nostras for 7 voices in 2 choirs
I choir: 3 trombones, alto, tenor
II choir: tenor, bass, dulcian and positive organ

Communio Video caelos apertos
soprano solo, cornett and positive organ

Offertory Iustus ut palma florebit for 7 voices in 2 choirs
I choir: 2 sopranos, alto, tenor, 2 cornetts
II choir: 2 trombones, alto, tenor, bass, dulcian, positive organ

Communio Exiit sermo
bass solo, trombone and positive organ

Offertory Inveni David servum meum for 8 voices in 2 choirs
I choir: cornett, soprano, 3 trombones, bass
II choir: cornett, soprano, alto, tenor, dulcian, positive organ

Communio In splendoribus sanctorum
tenor solo, dulcian and positive organ

Offertory Anima nostra for 7 voices in 2 choirs
I choir: 2 cornetts, 2 sopranos, tenor
II choir: 3 trombones, dulcian, alto, tenor, bass

Communio Beatus servus for 3 voices
2 cornetts and dulcian

Communio Tu puer propheta for 5 voices
soprano, alto, 2 tenors, bass and positive organ

Offertory Laetentur omnes for 8 voices in 2 choirs
I choir: cornett, dulcian, soprano, alto, tenor, bass
II choir: alto, tenor, cornett, 3 trombones

Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) Motet Adoramus te for 6 voices, SV 289 from book I of the collection Motetti in lode d’Iddio nostro Signore by Giulio Cesare Bianchi (publ. Venice 1620)
Mikołaj Zieleński Hymn Magnificat for 12 voices in 3 choirs from the collection Offertoria et communiones totius anni

Concert description

Offertoria included multi-choir works with instruments, with the twelve-voice (i.e., three four-voice choirs) Magnificat at the front Although Venice joined the ranks of important musical centers later than other cities in northern Italy, once it did, it eclipsed them all. Even before opera began to reign supreme in the 17th century, church music dominated, in a rich, expansive, and not necessarily contemplative style, performed, for example, in the monumental St. Mark’s Basilica. La Serenissima was also one of the European capitals of music printing. Publishing works in one of the local printing houses was a certificate of quality. Among Polish composers, this was achieved by Mikołaj Zieleński. In 1611, Giacomo Vincenti published two volumes of his religious works arranged chronologically according to the liturgical year: Offertoria totius anni and Communiones totius anni. Zieleński dedicated the collection to the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Wojciech Baranowski of Gniezno. He was the organist and kapellmeister in his private chapel at the castle in Łowicz (of which, unfortunately, only ruins remain). Does this mean that at that time the “second capital of Poland” had the most fashionable music? Definitely. Offertoria featured multi-choir works with instruments, with the twelve-voice (i.e., three four-voice choirs) Magnificat at the front. In Communiones, the composer included more intimate pieces, also monophonic ones – these are the first monophonic compositions in Poland with basso continuo accompaniment and the participation of concert instruments.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Jean-Philippe Rameau Suite of dances from the opéra-ballet Les Indes galantes [14’]
Air for the African Slaves (Air pour les esclaves africains) from scene VI of entrée Generous Turk (Le Turc généreux)
Contredanse from scene V of Prologue
Prelude for the Adoration of the Sun (Prélude pour l’adoration du soleil) from scene V of entrée The Incas of Peru (Les Incas du Pérou)
Rondeau: Dance of the Grand Peace Pipe, Performed by the Savages (Rondeau: Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix, exécutée par les sauvages) from scene VI of entrée Savages (Les Sauvages)
Chaconne from scene VI of entrée Savages
Witold Lutosławski Little Suite for symphony orchestra [14’]
Fife
Hurra Polka
Song
Dance
Léo Delibes Suite from the ballet Coppélia (selection) [10’]
Entr’acte and Waltz
Prelude and Mazurka
Charles Gounod Ballet music from act V of opera Faust [15’]
Allegretto (Tempo di valse)
Adagio
Allegretto
Moderato maestoso
Moderato con moto
Allegretto
Allegro vivo – Poco animato

Programme

Edward Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 [30’]
I. Adagio – Moderato
II. Lento – Allegro molto
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro – Moderato – Allegro, ma non troppo – Poco più lento – Adagio – Allegro molto
Benjamin Britten The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell, Op. 34 [18’]
Theme A: Allegro maestoso e largamente (tutti)
Theme B (woodwinds)
Theme C (brass)
Theme D (strings)
Theme E (percussion)
Theme F (tutti)
Variation A: Presto (flutes and piccolo)
Variation B: Lento (oboes)
Variation C: Moderato (clarinets)
Variation D: Allegro alla marcia (bassoons)
Variation E: Brillante – Alla polacca (violins)
Variation F: Meno mosso (violas)
Variation G: [L’istesso tempo] (cellos)
Variation H: Comminciando lento ma poco a poco accelerando al Allegro (double basses)
Variation I: Maestoso (harp)
Variation K: Vivace (trumpets)
Variation L: Allegro pomposo (trombones and tuba)
Variation M: Moderato (percussion)
Fugue: Allegro molto

Concert description

If a poll were held for the most misguided critics’ comments, Oscar Schmitz’s infamous statement would certainly rank high. In 1904, he described England as “a country without music.” Ironically, the late 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century saw the peak of Edward Elgar’s creative abilities and popularity – he gained fame not only in his native British Isles, but also in continental Europe and the United States, and his four-movement Cello Concerto in E minor proved to be his most beloved instrumental work among performers and audiences alike. The beginning of this piece is one of the most dramatic moments in music, not only of late Romanticism. While Elgar’s work usually fit into the pan-European style (except for his oratorios!), the much younger Benjamin Britten eagerly drew on local heritage. One of the best examples of this is The Young Person’ Guide to the Orchestra. The theme of the series of variations, in which individual instruments are presented, is Henry Purcell’s dance rondo, which is an act tune, i.e., a piece performed between acts of a play, from the revival of the play Abdelazer by English writer Aphra Behn at the end of the 17th century. The idea of attractive, engaging education is also highly valued in Great Britain. The Young Person’ Guide to the Orchestra was initially a musical illustration for a film about a symphony orchestra. The finale of the piece made a particular impression – a frenzied fugue (no one envies the flutists for their breakneck solo opening!), in which Purcell’s theme returns at the end in a triumphant orchestral tutti.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik in G major, K.525 [17’]
I. Allegro
II.Romance: Andante
III. Menuetto: Allegretto
IV. Rondo: Allegro
Edward Elgar Serenade in E minor, Op. 20 [12’]
I. Allegro piacevole
II. Larghetto
III. Allegretto
Peter Warlock Capriol Suite [11’]
Basse-Danse
Pavane
Tordion
Bransles
Pieds-en-l’air
Mattachins (Sword Dance)
Michał Spisak Andante and Allegro for violin and string orchestra [9’]*

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem (selection, arr. Julien Beautemps) [16’]
Introit
Kyrie
Dies irae
Lacrimosa
Domine Jesu Christe
Victor Vlasov Vesnyanka (Веснянка) [5‘]
Julien Beautemps Sonata No. 1 Inferno (Polish premiere) [25’]
I. Praeludium aeternum
II. Inferno
III. Pater noster

Concert description

“I love arrangers more than anyone else” – these words by Peter Szendy can cheer up any instrumentalist and composer who likes to play and perhaps prepare their own transcriptions, especially in moments when they lose faith in their necessity in the age of music available at every click. Maybe it is precisely because we no longer need arrangements to get to know pieces (as was the case before the advent of recording technology) that we are better able to appreciate their independent artistic value? Besides, although accordionists have a very rich repertoire of pieces written for their instrument, the earliest of these date back only to the 19th century. And how can we give up playing Bach or Mozart? For listeners, on the other hand, arrangements give an insight into how others hear the pieces they know – without the mediation of words. Julien Beautemps, a 25-year-old musician who has already won several awards, set himself a real challenge – to translate selected parts of the Requiem in D minor for the accordion. His response to Mozart’s masterpiece is also his Sonata “Inferno,” performed for the first time in Poland, in which “echoes of choirs and contemplative soundscapes appear one after another, and the effects have been chosen to showcase the amazing possibilities of the concert accordion.” In this piece, Beautemps reveals “his dual identity as a performer and composer, with spiritual heritage intertwined with colorful imagination.” A surprising interlude will be the folk-inspired Vesnyanka, also by composer and accordionist Wiktor Własow.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Julien Beautemps – Sonata No. 1 Inferno

Ten orkiestrowy fresk to kombinacja trzech części inspirowanych religią. Echa chórów i kontemplacyjne pejzaże dźwiękowe następują po sobie – w zestawieniu efektów, które wykorzystują zadziwiające możliwości akordeonu koncertowego. Pozwala mi to zademonstrować moją podwójną tożsamość jako interpretatora i kompozytora – w nowym utworze, który łączy duchowe dziedzictwo i barwną wyobraźnię.

– Julien Beautemps

Programme

Antonio Vivaldi Four Seasons, Op. 8 (selection)
Allegro (mov. I) from Violin Concerto in E major Spring, R.269 [3’]
Allegro non molto (mov. I) from Violin Concerto in F minor Winter, R.297 [3’]
Tempo impetuoso d’Estate (mov. III) from Violin Concerto in G minor Summer, R.315 [3’]
Gabriel Fauré Après un rêve (After a dream, No. 1) from the collection Three Melodies, Op. 7 [3’]
Camille Saint-Saëns Symphonic Poem Danse macabre [4’]
Béla Bartók Romanian Dances, Sz.68 [6’]
Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin Sevdana [5’]
Johannes Brahms Hungardian Dance No. 17 in F-sharp minor [4’]
George Gershwin Blues from Symphonic Poem An American in Paris [3’]
Hiromi Uehara Tom and Jerry Show [5’]
Leonard Bernstein West Side Story Medley [5’]

Concert description

A journey from Venice, through Paris, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, all the way to New York – it’s a crazy idea, although it begins seemingly seriously, with three-hundred-year-old Baroque concerts. But Antonio Vivaldi, although a priest, lived in Venice and was certainly not indifferent to the festivities of the carnival season. His most famous Four Seasons are full of humor, and the drama of a summer storm and a winter blizzard is highly theatrical and quickly passes. It transitions into dances – the dance of the dead in Camille Saint-Saëns, the Romanian stylizations of Béla Bartók and the Hungarian stylizations of Johannes Brahms. And in between: a brief respite in Gabriel Fauré’s wistful dream and Sevdana by Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin, a bit of nonchalant boasting in George Gershwin’s Blues, and a pinch of emotion in excerpts from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. The evening ends in pandemonium. When writing Tom and Jerry Show, Hiromi Uehara obviously had the famous cartoon in mind. In her music, a cat and a mouse do indeed chase each other around in circles. Just listening to it can leave you breathless – so how fit must the performers be?

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Georg Friedrich Händel
Allemande from Suite in E minor, HWV 438 [3’]
Suite in D minor (collated by Pierre Hantaï) [21’]
Overture to the opera Il pastor fido, HWV 8a (selection, anonymous arr. for keyboard)
Allemande from Suite HWV 436
Courante from Suite HWV 437
Sarabande from Suite HWV 438
Menuet with Variations from Suite HWV 436
Gigue from Suite HWV 438
Suite in D minor, HWV 428 [26’]
Prelude: Presto
Fugue: Allegro
Allemande
Courante
Aria and 5 Variations
Presto

Concert description

Niccolò Paganini was not the first composer accused of dealing with the devil. Georg Friedrich Händel had been suspected of this earlier, after playing the harpsichord in Rome in a strange position, with his hat under his arm. In the Eternal City, he caused a sensation, especially as a performer. At the invitation of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, he even competed with Domenico Scarlatti. Scarlatti won the harpsichord competition, Händel – the organ one (how to arrive at a Solomonic solution here?). In 1720, already in London, the composer decided to publish his keyboard suites, personally supervising the printing for the only time in his life. He was prompted to do so by a well-founded suspicion that an unauthorized publication was being planned in Amsterdam. After Queen Anne’s Statute of 1710, pirates could no longer legally print them in the Kingdom of Great Britain. Händel beat them to it, and after the incident he obtained a royal privilege giving him full exclusivity for the publication of his music in England. The composer reworked selected pieces until the very last moment. The Suite in D minor, HWV 428 contained old material – the first version of the Aria and Variations was written as early as 1705, while Händel wrote the completely new Allemande and Courante especially for the publication. The audience always liked novelties… The pasticcio – that is , collated of parts of other works – Suite in D minor composed by Pierre Hantai is therefore nothing strange, but simply an emanation of Baroque practice, better known from opera, but also present in other genres.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Jean-Philippe Rameau Suite of dances from the opéra-ballet Les Indes galantes [14’]
Air for the African Slaves (Air pour les esclaves africains) from scene VI of entrée Generous Turk (Le Turc généreux)
Contredanse from scene V of Prologue
Prelude for the Adoration of the Sun (Prélude pour l’adoration du soleil) from scene V of entrée The Incas of Peru (Les Incas du Pérou)
Rondeau: Dance of the Grand Peace Pipe, Performed by the Savages (Rondeau: Danse du Grand Calumet de la Paix, exécutée par les sauvages) from scene VI of entrée Savages (Les Sauvages)
Chaconne from scene VI of entrée Savages
Witold Lutosławski Little Suite for symphony orchestra [14’]
Fife
Hurra Polka
Song
Dance
Léo Delibes Suite from the ballet Coppélia (selection) [10’]
Entr’acte and Waltz
Prelude and Mazurka
Charles Gounod Ballet music from act V of opera Faust [15’]
Allegretto (Tempo di valse)
Adagio
Allegretto
Moderato maestoso
Moderato con moto
Allegretto
Allegro vivo – Poco animato

Programme

Claude Bolling Jazzomania [5’]
Django Reinhardt Nuages (arr. Vince Norman) [4’]
Jacques Prévert/Joseph Kosma Les feuilles mortes (Autumn Leaves, arr. Ted Heath) [5’]
George Gershwin American in Paris Blues (arr. Eddie Sauter) [4’]
Michel Legrand Windmills of Your Mind (arr. Eric Richards) [6’]
Sidney Bechet Petite fleur (arr. Neal Hefti) [3’]
Claude Bolling Here Comes the Blues [4’]
Vernon Duke April in Paris (arr. Sammy Nestico) [4’]
George Gershwin Strike Up the Band (arr. Sammy Nestico) [4’]

Concert description

To Europeans who could not go to the United States, jazz was revealed during World War I, when it was spread in France by soldiers from overseas who stationed there. The real boom for the music, of course, did not erupt until after the war, when society sought to unwind after the catastrophe ending the old world, and also saw that some things – like the position of women – had changed for the better. Jazz was the music of optimism, of the future, of freedom. Paris was vibrant and attracted artists, such as the Lost Generation of writers and composers in love with neoclassicism. This embodiment of the City of Light, as seen through the eyes of a fascinated foreigner, was immortalized by George Gershwin in his poem An American in Paris. Another newcomer from the United States who visited the French capital (and even wrote a ballet for Diaghilev!) was Vernon Duke, and his April in Paris may have been written out of sentiment for that city, said to be charming especially in spring. Sidney Bechet also came from America, but he was not immediately able to stay in Paris for good. His first tour ended in prison – and later deportation – for trying to shoot a man who insulted him. However, he hit a random woman with a bullet… Joseph Kosma, on the other hand, emigrated to France from Hungary. In his adopted homeland, he was active as a respected songwriter and film musician. Soon, native jazz artists, such as Michel Legrand and Claude Bolling, also appeared in France.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)

Programme

Witold Lutosławski Symphonic Variations for orchestra [9’]
Karol Szymanowski Symphony No. 4, Op. 60 Concertante for piano and orchestra [25’]
I. Moderato. Tempo comodo
II. Andante molto sostenuto
III. Allegro non troppo, ma agitato ed ansioso
Maurice Ravel Bolero [15’]

Concert description

Fascination with France and French music was not uncommon among Polish composers in the first half of the 20th century. For example, the Association of Young Polish Musicians in Paris had been active since 1926. Piotr Perkowski founded it after Karol Szymanowski persuaded him to study in the City of Light. The composer of Violin Concerto No. 2 himself already clearly preferred French music to German music, which he even called his “grave.” And although he composed his Symphony No. 4 “Concertante” much later, already under the influence of other ideas (such as the Great Lechia theory), the work is dominated by a neoclassical style and Gallic (i.e. French) clarity. Szymanowski performed it as a pianist in many European cities, including Lyon and Paris. 1926 was also the year of what is probably the oldest recording of Maurice Ravel’s La Valse, conducted by Albert Coates. Although the waltz is famous, the composer’s other orchestral dance, Bolero, written two years later, is known even better, with its memorable, obsessively repeated rhythm. Both Ravel and Szymanowski were highly regarded by Witold Lutosławski. He made his official debut as a composer in the 1930s with Symphonic Variations, a work that reveals a French-inspired love for clarity, lightness, and attention to detail.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)