Programme

Programme

Children always find a magical place at home, where they feel most comfortable. In it they hide their favorite toys and stories, and sometimes secrets. But is there a place for music? Can we turn a children’s corner into a music room? Are there any childhood memories embedded in the works of famous composers such as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Frederic Chopin or Jacques Offenbach? Of course, the concert would not be complete without Claude Debussy’s piano miniatures from the Children’s Corner series.

Concert description

Concert for children aged 0-5

Concert description

The adventure of listening to classical music usually begins with…. Romantic symphonic works. Why? Because this kind of music tells interesting stories! And who doesn’t love stories with a captivating plot, mysterious atmosphere, heroic and funny characters, and dangerous enemies? All of these and many more feelings can be expressed through music, and the language of this expression was created by Romantic composers, who were fascinated by stories from ancient times and exotic lands, folk melodies, horror, and mystery. And we still can understand this language, even if we think we “don’t know much about music.” Drawing upon music by Felix Mendelssohn and Stanislaw Moniuszko, we will look at how a symphony orchestra creates moods and tells stories, we will revisit the classics of Shakespearean comedy, and sing a traditional song. And since Romanticism is also a mystery, there must also be some surprises! It will be fantastic!

Programme

Children always find a magical place at home, where they feel most comfortable. In it they hide their favorite toys and stories, and sometimes secrets. But is there a place for music? Can we turn a children’s corner into a music room? Are there any childhood memories embedded in the works of famous composers such as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Frederic Chopin or Jacques Offenbach? Of course, the concert would not be complete without Claude Debussy’s piano miniatures from the Children’s Corner series.

Programme

Ernest Chausson Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 3 [32’]
I. Pas trop lent
II. Vite
III. Assez lent
IV. Animé

Camille Saint-Saëns Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 92 [35’]
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Allegretto
III. Andante con moto
IV. Gracioso, poco allegro
V. Allegro non troppo

Concert description

The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of French classical music are probably Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, then perhaps the so-called Group of Six, all of whom are typically counted among representatives of Impressionism and Neoclassicism characterized by delicacy, ephemerality, elegance, and humor.

However, it is worth noting that the road to achieving this kidn of sérénité – the combination of serenity with a light haze of melancholy – was not so simple. For several decades of the 19th century, French music remained strongly influenced by German artists. It was only in the works of César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns, and younger composers, Gabriel Fauré, and Ernest Chausson, that this music lost some of its dense harmony and became much lighter. The aspiration to create their own style can already be seen, for example, in the change of tempo markings – the older generation still used German names, while the younger one turned to French.

These composers, instead of greater complication of harmony (characteristic of German music), searched for unusual color effects, reached for modal scales, and by using popular dance rhythms, stayed closer to everyday life than to the world of ideas. Let’s take a look at the waltzes featured in the fourth movement of the Trio in E minor by Saint-Saëns as well as in the last movement by Chausson and at the second movement of the Trio in G minor with its almost ragtime style, which, after all, did not yet exist at the time!

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Franz Schubert XIII Kwartet smyczkowy a-moll Rosamunde D.804 [33’]
I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Andante
III. Menuetto. Allegretto
IV. Allegro moderato

Robert Schumann Kwintet fortepianowy Es-dur op. 44 [30’]
I. Allegro brillante
II. In modo d’una marcia. Un poco largamente – Agitato
III. Scherzo. Molto vivace
IV. Allegro ma non troppo

Concert description

The 19th century is often seen as an era of opposites: the industrial revolution and technological progress vs. Gothicism and the crisis of the Enlightenment faith in reason, the flowering of national cultures vs. the birth of modern cosmopolitanism. These divergent tendencies can also be found in music: monumentalism in symphony and opera vs. miniaturization of genres practiced in aristocratic and bourgeois parlors.

Miniatures and songs worked well in a small group, but what worked even better was chamber music, which became a musical equivalent of a social gathering. Despite the weight of absolute music inherited from Beethoven’s late works, trios, quartets, and quintets also had some programmatic features. It was especially evident in vocal and instrumental works of Franz Schubert, such as the late Rosamunde Quartet, which refers to his music written for a drama by Helmina von Chézy. And even without such references, as in Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet, the emotional evocativeness, changeability, and dialogues between instruments make one perceive the work as a quasi-narrative or quasi-drama.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Children always find a magical place at home, where they feel most comfortable. In it they hide their favorite toys and stories, and sometimes secrets. But is there a place for music? Can we turn a children’s corner into a music room? Are there any childhood memories embedded in the works of famous composers such as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Frederic Chopin or Jacques Offenbach? Of course, the concert would not be complete without Claude Debussy’s piano miniatures from the Children’s Corner series.

Concert description

Concert for children aged 0-5

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”

Programme

P. des Molins De ce que fol pense
anonymous or Guillaume de Machaut Honté, paour
Guillaume de Machaut Dame, ne regardes pas
Antonello da Caserta Beauté parfaite (lyr. Guillaume de Machaut)
anonymous En vergier (ms. Kras 52)
Jaquemart le Cuvelier Se Galaas
anonymous En discort (Codex Faenza)
anonymous A Florence, la joyeuse cité
Arnold de Lantins Puis que je sui cyprianés
John Bedyngham or Walter Frye So ys emprentid
Guillaume de Machaut Quant je sui mis au retour

Concert description

Formed at the turn of the 20th century, the La Morra ensemble comes from the hotbed of early music performance, the Schola Cantorum Basilensis, which its founders Michał Gondko, who plays plucked string instruments, and Corina Marti, a harpsichordist and flutist, graduated from. The ensemble specializes in performing medieval and Renaissance repertoire ranging from the well-known pieces to those not performed for centuries.

Their program for the Festival will encompass both groups of works. On the one hand, it will include ballads, Dame, ne regardes pas and Honté, paour, as well as virelai Quant je sui mis au retour by perhaps the most famous medieval composer known by name, Guillaume de Machaut (the authorship of Honté, paour is uncertain). On the other, we will also hear the lesser-known pieces – not only the anonymous ones, such as the ballad En discort from the Faenza Codex or En vergier from the most important Polish manuscript with polyphonic music – Kras. 52 (from the Krasiński Library, where it used to be kept), but also those attributable to authors known by name, even if their names don’t mean much to us today: P[ierre?]. des Molins, Antonello da Caserta, Jaquemart Le Cuvelier, Arnold de Lantins, John Bedyngham or Walter Frye.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Concert description

Concert for teens 12+

If Adam Mickiewicz were alive today, he would certainly be the king of social media! Perhaps he would be writing engaging posts and encouraging people to sign petitions or uploading little improvisations on TikTok? Perhaps he would be running a travel blog titled It’s a long way from Rome (a tavern!) to Crimea, creating and sharing playlists of music he heard while traveling? Tracing the geography of the poet’s life – the map of his travels and wanderings – together with various musicians we will follow an imagined sonic path. Adorned with the Poet’s words, the musical story goes from the Lithuanian wilderness through the Akerman steppes and the salons of Paris to Constantinople.

Programme

Alma Mahler Five Songs (Fünf Lieder, arr. Agata Zubel) [13’]
The silent town (Die stille Stadt)
In my father’s garden (In meines Vaters Garten) 
Mild summer night (Laue Sommernacht) 
I feel warm and close with you (Bei dir ist es traut) 
I wander among flowers (Ich wandle unter Blumen) 

Alma Mahler Four Songs (Vier Lieder, arr. Agata Zubel) [11’]
A nocturnal light (Licht in der Nacht) 
Woodland rapture (Waldseligkeit)
Storm (Ansturm)
Harvest song (Erntelied)

Gustav Mahler Songs of a Wayfarer (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, arr. Ernst Kovacic) [17’]
When my love has her wedding-day (Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht)
I walked across the fields this morning (Ging heut’ Morgen über’s Feld)
I’ve a gleaming knife (Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer)
The two blue eyes of my love (Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz)

Gustav Mahler Songs after Rückert (Rückert-Lieder, arr. Ernst Kovacic) [20’]
If you love for beauty (Liebst du um Schönheit)
I breathed a gentle fragrance (Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft) 
I am lost to the world (Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen)
Do not look into my songs! (Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!)
At midnight (Um Mitternacht)

Concert description

Until recently, Alma Mahler remained on the margins of music history. She was remembered as the mother of Manon Gropius, after whose untimely death Alban Berg wrote the Violin Concerto To the Memory of an Angel, and especially as Gustav Mahler’s wife, who, just for him, gave up her musical ambitions and focused on fostering the musical community centered around her artistic salon.

She played the piano from childhood, and studied composition with Josef Labor and Alexander von Zemlinsky. She wrote chamber music, piano music, and even an opera scene. However, only 17 songs for voice and piano, often arranged for orchestra (she destroyed some of the manuscripts herself!) have survived to this day. She even published 14 of them under the names Schindler-Mahler and Mahler. Despite several marriages and love affairs, she considered herself Gustav’s wife until the end of her life.

In addition to symphonics, the most important part of Gustav Mahler’s work was songwriting. The song cycles based on Rückert’s poetry, the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and his own words are considered, along with the works of Hugo Wolff or Richard Strauss, the most powerful and important works in this genre in late Romanticism.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Joaquín Rodrigo Españoleta and Fanfare of the Neapolitan chivalry, Dance with Axes (mov. II, III) from Fantasy for a Gentleman for guitar and orchestra* [10’]
Joaquín Rodrigo Adagio* [8’]
Manuel de Falla Dance No. 1 from the opera The Short Life (La vida breve)* [5’]
Manuel de Falla Ritual Fire Dance from the ballet The Bewitched Love (El amor brujo)* [4’]
Georges Bizet Carmen, Suite* [6’]
Élodie Soulard, Emmanuel Rossfelder Variations on the La folía theme [6’]
Isaac Albéniz Asturias from the Spanish Suite No. 1, Op. 47* [6’]

* trb. Élodie Soulard i Emmanuel Rossfelder

Concert description

Spain in music? The guitar, castanets, flamenco, old court dances and melodies – think Velázquez and Goya. Music rooted in the country’s local traditions flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the works of Joaquín Rodrigo, Manuel de Falla, Isaac Albéniz or Enrique Granados.

But it influenced art all over Europe long before that. The saraband and the La Follia theme, developed by many renowned composers like Vivaldi, Händel, and Marin Marais, also have Spanish roots. And the most famous musical image of Spain was probably painted by French composer Georges Bizet. Carmen, especially the Habanera and the March of the Toreadors, are almost always associated with the country of Cervantes.

The 20th century also became the age of the guitar – it is one of the few instruments whose performance techniques have evolved so much over the past 100 years. Interestingly, not all of the most emblematic Spanish composers who wrote pieces for guitar actually played it – for example, Rodrigo, the author of Fantasía para un gentilhombre or Concierto de Aranjuez, was primarily a pianist.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Concert description

Concert for teens aged 12+

If Adam Mickiewicz were alive today, he would certainly be the king of social media! Perhaps he would be writing engaging posts and encouraging people to sign petitions or uploading little improvisations on TikTok? Perhaps he would be running a travel blog titled It’s a long way from Rome (a tavern!) to Crimea, creating and sharing playlists of music he heard while traveling? Tracing the geography of the poet’s life – the map of his travels and wanderings – together with various musicians we will follow an imagined sonic path. Adorned with the Poet’s words, the musical story goes from the Lithuanian wilderness through the Akerman steppes and the salons of Paris to Constantinople.

Programme

Johannes Brahms Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87 [30’]
I. Allegro (moderato)
II. Andante con moto
III. Scherzo. Presto
IV. Finale. Allegro giocoso
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66 [29’]
I. Allegro energico e con fuoco
II. Andante espressivo
III. Scherzo. Molto allegro quasi presto
IV. Finale. Allegro appassionato

Concert description

One conception of Classicism and Romanticism is that these terms do not just define eras or currents, but rather features present in the works from different periods. And although the 19^th century is definitely dominated by the former one – the dismantling of canons and forms, the recognition of strong connections between different artistic activities, and the appreciation of irrational and emotional elements, the composers of this era also valued and continued the classical heritage.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Johannes Brahms are perhaps the best examples of this approach. It should be reminded that the first one was born the year Haydn died, and was already 18 years old when Beethoven died! Brahms, who dared to write his first symphony at a mature age, modelled himself after the author of Eroica.

However, attachment to certain ideas of classicism – such as elegance and transparency of form, textural clarity, proportionality of structure and sound – does not make their work any less Romantic. Even in chamber music which is the closest to the ideals of absolute music – the kind of music that has no specific story behind it, but is simply meant to be a play of sounds and, through aesthetic means, bring the listener closer to a peculiar version of the absolute – including the two “Second” Piano Trios, one can find the emotionality, lyricism, fierceness, and narrativity strongly associated with the 19^th century music.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Robert Schumann Manfred Overture, Op. 115 [12’]
Hector Berlioz Harold in Italy, Op. 16, Symphony for viola and orchestra [43’]
I. Harold in the mountains. Scenes of melancholy, happiness and joy
II. March of the pilgrims singing their evening prayer
III. Serenade of a mountaineer from the Abruzzi to his mistress
IV. Orgy of brigands. Memories of earlier scenes

Concert description

Although the topos of wandering is present in the oldest texts (Homer’s Odyssey and the Bible being prime examples), it is perhaps most often found in Romanticism. The Romantic hero goes on a physical journey to make the spiritual one – as a youth who grows up along the way (like the wandering wayfarer or Wilhelm Meister), as a man in his prime (like Faust) or the one who abandons the world or is rejected by it (like the hero of Schubert’s Winter Journey or Vaughan-Williams’ Songs of Travel).

One of the first Romantic texts in which the road motif drives the plot was George Gordon Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A comparable role in music – of a forerunner and inventor – was played by Hector Berlioz. He is often accredited with creating the first truly programmatic (depicting extra-musical content) composition – in 1830 he wrote the Symphonie Fantastique. A few years later he reached for Byron’s work. He enriched four-movement Symphony Harold in Italia with a solo viola obbligato, which represents the main character. Byron’s works also inspired other Romantic composers. The theater music for the drama Manfred with its famous overture was written by Robert Schumann.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Franz Schubert Winter Journey (Winterreise), Op. 89 D.911 [70’]
Good Night (Gute Nacht. Mässig) 
The Weathervane (Die Wetterfahne. Ziemlich geschwind) 
Frozen Tears (Gefrorne Tränen. Nicht zu langsam)
Numbness (Erstarrung. Ziemlich schnell) 
The Linden Tree (Der Lindenbaum. Mässig) 
Flood (Wasserflut. Langsam)
On the Stream (Auf dem Flusse. Langsam) 
Backward Glance (Rückblick. Nicht zu geschwind) 
Will-o’-the-Wisp (Irrlicht. Langsam)
Rest (Rast. Mässig)
Dream of Spring (Frühlingstraum. Etwas bewegt)
Loneliness (Einsamkeit. Langsam)
The Post (Die Post. Etwas geschwind) 
The Grey Head (Der greise Kopf. Etwas langsam) 
The Crow (Die Krähe. Etwas langsam) 
Last Hope (Letzte Hoffnung. Nicht zu geschwind)
In the Village (Im Dorfe. Etwas langsam) 
The Stormy Morning (Der stürmische Morgen. Ziemlich geschwind, doch kräftig)
Deception (Täuschung. Etwas geschwind)
The Signpost (Der Wegweiser. Mässig)
The Inn (Das Wirtshaus. Sehr langsam)
Courage! (Mut. Ziemlich geschwind, kräftig)
The Mock Suns (Die Nebensonnen. Nicht zu langsam)
The Hurdy-Gurdy Player (Der Leiermann. Etwas langsam)

Concert description

Fremd bin ich eingezogen, / fremd zieh ich wieder aus (I came here as a stranger, / As a stranger I leave again; translated by M. Lester). The very opening of Winter Journey, an all-time song cycle, already reveals its character and main subject. It is a study of alienation, maladjustment. The Romantic hero – misunderstood and rejected by the world – has got a perfect, timeless portrait in Wilhelm Müller’s poems immortalized by Schubert. Winterreise is not a journey in the colloquial sense. It has no definite physical, geographic destination (it may only end in death), becoming an eternal wandering.
Schubert’s masterpiece, although perfect for piano, was also transcribed for other instruments. It tempts singers, instrumentalists, and arrangers, who sometimes record and perform it many times, trying to penetrate its mystery. Sometimes they even become obsessed with it (a word used by Ian Bostridge in the title of his famous book). However, the arrangement for hurdy-gurdy and voice – especially the final Der Leiermann (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man) – is special. It shows Schubert’s perfect ear and unique sensibility with the most clarity. Winterreise goes back to its roots.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Music from the album Try! (2021)

Concert description

French trumpeter and composer Airelle Besson, winner of the Victoires de Jazz in 2015 and the Django Reinhardt Prize in 2014 (in the musician of the year category), presents her second original album recorded with her quartet composed of equally accomplished and experienced performers.

Besson began playing the trumpet when she was seven. Over the past twenty years she made appearances on dozens of albums, often as a leader. She has participated in diverse projects, including crossover projects. Especially notable is her contribution to Rosemary Standley’s and Ensemble Contraste’s album featuring arrangements of Schubert songs. She even plays reworkings of music by Johann Sebastian Bach (Es ist vollbracht) and Maurice Ravel (Pavane for a Dead Princess).

Try! is an engaging and diverse album. Although it is dominated by trumpet and voice, intertwined in dialogues, its richness is shaped by rhythmic, emotional, and color variation – especially using synthesizers and the Rhodes piano. Standouts on the album include the three-part suite The Sound of Your Voice with its opening reflective trumpet solo, the energetic and rhythmically sharp Wild Animals and Patitoune, and two melancholic pieces – the title track Try! and the mysterious Uranus et Pluto.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”