Programme

Concert description

Concert for children aged 6+

Since Little Basil moved to Sinfonia Varsovia’s headquarters, he has already managed to learn about most of the orchestra’s instruments and make friends with the musicians. Now it’s time for a rematch – we will have the opportunity to talk about the world dragons know best: the land far, far away, with its forests, brave heroes, fantastic creatures, and wizards. Sinfonia Varsovia’s wind ensemble will perform a repertoire enriched by Little Basil’s fairy-tale commentary. In addition to the overture to the opera Hansel and Gretel, the program will include works based on literary legends and fantasies. The audience may hear with their own ears the sounds of wonderland – sometimes this world might be magical and a little uncanny, but with Little Basil by your side, you don’t have to be afraid of anything.

Concert description

Concert for children aged 0-5

Beautiful gardens, small and large, are magical places where you can fully relax while listening to music. Along with it come fairy tales, sometimes about faraway lands, and other times about the garden’s inhabitants – flowers, trees, animals, and gnomes. In our enchanted garden, you will hear instruments that tell stories: harp, flute, cello, and piano played by Ravel Piano Duo artists for four hands. All gnomes, elves, and dwarves will rejoice at the music.

Concert description

Concert for children aged 0-5

Beautiful gardens, small and large, are magical places where you can fully relax while listening to music. Along with it come fairy tales, sometimes about faraway lands, and other times about the garden’s inhabitants – flowers, trees, animals, and gnomes. In our enchanted garden, you will hear instruments that tell stories: harp, flute, cello, and piano played by Ravel Piano Duo artists for four hands. All gnomes, elves, and dwarves will rejoice at the music.

Programme

Bedřich Smetana String Quartet No. 1 in E minor From My Life [29’]
I. Allegro vivo appassionato
II. Allegro moderato à la Polka
III. Largo sostenuto
IV. Vivace
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20 [33’]
I. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco
II. Andante
III. Scherzo. Allegro leggierissimo
IV. Presto

Concert description

Classical music is generally viewed as “pure” music – the interplay of sounds arranged in artful forms. Symphony was placed at the top of the hierarchy of genres. Beethoven revolutionized this genre with his Symphony No. 9 in D minor featuring soloists and chorus. In this way, the role of the main absolute genre was taken over by the string quartet – although Beethoven began to change this as well, including a puzzling question and answer in a manuscript of his String Quartet Op. 135: Muss es sein? – Es muss sein! (Must it be? – It must be!).

In Romanticism, symphony and chamber music developed in the direction of both the absolute and the programmatic style. Two years before Beethoven’s death, 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy wrote his first acclaimed work, the Octet for two string quartets. This youthful piece is full of verve, joy, and hope. The programmatic, autobiographical quartet From My Life was written at the mature age by Bedřich Smetana. In it, he dealt with his deteriorating health and cultural heritage (there is, for example, a Viennese waltz). The sound of the flageolet in the last movement is meant to resemble the screeching he was to hear before – like Beethoven – losing his hearing.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Francisco Tárrega La Gran Jota [5’]
Francisco Tárrega Memories of the Alhambra [5’]
Enrique Granados Andaluza from Twelve Spanish Dances* [5’]
Isaac Albéniz Asturias from Spanish Suite No. 1, Op. 47* [6’]
Niccolò Paganini Rondo : La Campanella from Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 7* [6’]
Luigi Boccherini Guitar Quintet in D major Fandango G.448 [18’]:
I. Pastorale
II. Allegro maestoso
III. Grave assai
IV. Fandango

* trb. Emmanuel Rossfelder

Concert description

The twentieth century became the golden age of the guitar – that’s when the most works were written for it, performance techniques developed, and even technological innovations introduced into the instrument itself. But it gained popularity much earlier, as early as the 18th century with the Classical and Romantic pieces by Italian composers such as Luigi Boccherini and Mauro Giuliani. Even Niccolò Paganini also played the guitar (in addition to violin and viola).

The guitar continues to be considered essentially Spanish (although it had its English variety, among others). This association was used by composers who, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, formed a kind of local “national school” (even if they didn’t play the guitar themselves!): Francisco Tárrega, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and, slightly later, Joaquín Rodrigo.

In addition to the eager use of the guitar (or imitation of guitar techniques in music for piano – like Albéniz in the Spanish Suites), they gave local color to their pieces by employing dance rhythms – jota, fandango or flamenco – often associated with specific lands (Asturias, Andalusia) or even buildings with symbolic meaning (the palace in the Alhambra).

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Concert description

Concert for children aged 0-5

Beautiful gardens, small and large, are magical places where you can fully relax while listening to music. Along with it come fairy tales, sometimes about faraway lands, and other times about the garden’s inhabitants – flowers, trees, animals, and gnomes. In our enchanted garden, you will hear instruments that tell stories: harp, flute, cello, and piano played by Ravel Piano Duo artists for four hands. All gnomes, elves, and dwarves will rejoice at the music.

Programme

Franz Schubert Psalm 23 D.706* [5’]
Joseph Haydn Contredanse Hob. IX:29* [2’]
Stanisław Moniuszko Kotylion from the 2nd act of opera The Countess (Hrabina)* [1’]
Stanisław Moniuszko The Spinner (Prząśniczka)* [2’]
Wolfgang A. Mozart Adagio in C minor for glass harmonica KV 617a [3’]
Wolfgang A. Mozart Fantasy in D minor KV 397* [6’]
Fryderyk Chopin Galop Marquis in A-flat major, WN 59* [1’]
Fryderyk Chopin Waltz in A minor, WN 63* [3’]
Henryk Wieniawski Kujawiak in A minor * [4’]
Franz Schubert Ave Maria, Op. 52/6 D.839* [3’]
Wolfgang A. Mozart Minuetto from Divertimento in B-flat major for wind instruments, KV 240 (arr. for glass harmonica, verrofon, viola and cello Christa and Gerald Schönfeldinger) [3’]
Wolfgang A. Mozart Adagio and Rondo for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello, KV 617 [15’]

* arr. for glass harmonica and verrofon: Christa and Gerald Schönfeldinger

Concert description

Old literature is often full of riddles – sometimes, not only the circumstances and spirit of the times, but also individual words have to be explained to the modern reader. Words like “świerzop” and “dzięcielina” (translated as “rapeseed” and “clover” by B. Johnston) are classic entries on the list of mysterious words found in Adam Mickiewicz’s work. And do we know what a “glass harmonica” is, to the playing of which Konrad compares his Great Improvisation in Dziady, Part III? Do we know why he says he “turns his musical glasses” (translation by Louise Varèse)?

The glass harmonica was invented and gained popularity in the 18th century. It is made from the aforementioned musical glasses, which are turned by means of a foot pedal and touched with fingers to set them into vibration (just like playing glasses at home). Even such famous composers as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Gaetano Donizetti, and Camille Saint-Saëns wrote pieces for the instrument that is so rarely heard today. Its characteristic tone was often used for illustrative purposes – especially in operas. The verrophone, constructed in 1983 by Sascha Reckert, works in a similar way, but uses vertical glass tubes which the player rubs with his fingers to make a sound. The two instruments share a bright, luminous, and glassy sound.

– 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”

Concert description

Concert for children aged 3+

The Bench is Little Basil’s favorite place. Not only can you relax here, but also make some new friends! The music that sounds through it unites everyone and everything, regardless of age, appearance, language, or… historical time. During the meeting with Little Basil and wind instruments, we will listen to stories of past centuries, and the French horn will have the opportunity to listen to the voice of his great-grandfather. Also, a certain artist who lived two hundred years ago will appear on the Bench. Who might this be? This is what the dragon does not want to reveal yet… Sounds unbelievable? Not necessarily! The Bench can blur the boundaries between “the past” and “the present”, between fantasy and reality.

Programme

Gustav Mahler Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor [12’]
Franz Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor Death and the Maiden D.810 (arr. for string orchestra Gustav Mahler) [40’]
I. Allegro
II. Andante con moto
III. Scherzo. Allegro molto
IV. Presto

Concert description

Gustav Mahler once said that by composing a symphony, he builds a new world. Yet until the middle of the last century, the integrity of Mahler’s works was not appreciated enough – they were considered eclectic and sometimes even kitsch…. While the world of twentieth-century music was dominated by the avant-garde, Mahler’s work was characterized by earnest emotion and evocativeness –perhaps that is why today it inspires filmmakers and stimulates visual thinking.

Such approach to compositions is adopted by Mariusz Wilczyński, an animation director, acclaimed especially for his first feature-length movie Kill It and Leave This Town (2020) with the soundtrack composed of songs by Tadeusz Nalepa and involved in live projects (e.g. with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach).

This time we will hear a “double transcription”. Gustav Mahler did not only compose and conduct, but also also arranged his own and other composers’ works for other ensembles – including Franz Schubert’s famous Death and the Maiden quartet. The author of the arrangement did not alter radically the original, but reather enhanced its articulation by transcribing it into a larger ensemble. And how will Mariusz Wilczyński transcribe it into a moving image?

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Ferenc Liszt Tristia for piano trio, S. 378c (Vallée d’Obermann from Années de Pèlerinage, First Year: Switzerland, trb. Ferenc Liszt, Eduard Lassen) [16’]
Juliusz Zarębski Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 34 [35’]
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Scherzo. Presto
IV. Finale. Presto

Concert description

We like to compare Ferenc Liszt with Frédéric Chopin – one is difficult to understand without the other, both were active in Paris at the same time, and both – though in different ways – defined the future of piano music and virtuosity. But there are two major differences between the two: Liszt was also interested in other instruments and lived much, much longer. He had time for performing and composing many works (as well as for intensive, multiple arrangements of his own or others’ pieces), as well as writing and teaching a group of students.

They were not only pianists. Many continued the tradition of combining virtuosity with composing. Among this group was Eduard Lassen, who based on his teacher’s notes arranged one movement of Liszt’s cycle inspired by his own travels and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Years of Learning Wilhelm Meister – Vallée d’Obermann. The importance of transcription in the 19th century was also evidenced by the fact that Liszt further revised Lassen’s arrangement of his work and gave it its final title.

Among Liszt’s most promising students, both as a pianist and composer, was Julius Zarębski. Although his untimely death ended his career, he left behind the most important Polish chamber work of the 19th century, the Piano Quintet in G minor and the visionary series of piano miniatures Róże i ciernie [Roses and Thorns].

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Concert description

Concert for children aged 3+

The Bench is Little Basil’s favorite place. Not only can you relax here, but also make some new friends! The music that sounds through it unites everyone and everything, regardless of age, appearance, language, or… historical time. During the meeting with Little Basil and wind instruments, we will listen to stories of past centuries, and the French horn will have the opportunity to listen to the voice of his great-grandfather. Also, a certain artist who lived two hundred years ago will appear on the Bench. Who might this be? This is what the dragon does not want to reveal yet… Sounds unbelievable? Not necessarily! The Bench can blur the boundaries between “the past” and “the present”, between fantasy and reality.

Programme

Richard Wagner Choir of Pilgrims from the 3rd act of Tannhäuser (trb. Ferenc Liszt S.443) [6’]
Richard Wagner Choir of Spinners from the 2nd act of Flying Dutchman (trb. Ferenc Liszt S.440) [6’]
Richard Wagner Isolde’s Love Death from the 3rd act of Tristan and Isolde (trb. Ferenc Liszt S.447) [7’]
Richard Wagner Solemn March to the Holy Grail from the 1st act of Parsifal (trb. Ferenc Liszt S.450) [9’]
Franz Schubert Swan Song (Schwanengesang) D.957 (trb. Ferenc Liszt, selection of songs: Love’s Message (Liebesbotschaft) S.560/4, Resting Place (Aufenthalt) S.560/3, Serenade (Ständchen) S.560/7) [13’]
Franz Schubert To Be Sung on the Water (Auf dem Wasser zu singen) (trb. Ferenc Liszt) [4’]

Concert description

Romanticism is the “age of passion” or the “century of songs”. One could also say that it was the “era of transcription.” In the 19th century, the writing of arrangements was just a necessity. In the pre-recording age there were three ways you could listen to a piece of music: you had to either attend a concert, “dry-read” the score, or play it – usually on the piano, as it was one of the few instruments that can make so many sounds at once as to imitate an orchestra. Transcription can also be viewed as an art. It was practiced by the greatest composers, including Gustav Mahler, and Ferenc Liszt, and in the 20th century – Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern.

The absolute classics of the genre include arrangements by Liszt. He “translated” Beethoven’s symphonies (all of them!), the great choruses and instrumental sections of Richard Wagner’s operas and dramas (privately his son-in-law), and the virtuosic pieces of Niccolo Paganini into piano. Liszt also dealt with seemingly lesser tasks – he enjoyed arranging songs, including the most beautiful pieces by Schubert or Schumann.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Fryderyk Chopin Mazurka in C major, Op. 24 No. 2 (arr. Mateusz Smoczyński)
Ignacy Jan Paderewski Sarabande. Lento in B minor, Op. 14 No. 2 from the collection Humoresques de Concert, Book 1: À l’antique (arr. Krzysztof Lenczowski)
Krzysztof Penderecki Aria from Three Pieces in Old Style (arr. Mateusz Smoczyński)
Henryk Wieniawski Souvenir de Posen, Op. 3 (arr. Dawid Lubowicz)
Mieczysław Karłowicz Under the Sycamore Tree (Pod jaworem) (arr. Michał Zaborski)
Michał Zaborski Souvenir de Wilno
Henryk Wieniawski Souvenir de San Francisco (arr. Mateusz Smoczyński)

Concert description

Nowadays, “classical” music – covering the period roughly from Bach to World War I – is strictly institutionalized. We refer to it as “classical”, listen to it primarily in philharmonic halls, where the stage and the audience are clearly separated and interpretations usually do not go far beyond the canons.

However, let’s not forget that many works performed today in such “sterile” conditions once served completely different functions: social entertainment, sometimes even an acrobatic virtuosic show, or a souvenir inscribed in someone’s friendship book. Some composers even dismissed their own minor compositions – Mieczysław Karłowicz, for example, referred to his songs as “mistakes of youth.” Some of these works fell out of the repertoire for a long time, treated as something empty or superficial, some functioned only in the pedagogical repertoire. Fortunately, many of them are beginning to be appreciated again today – also thanks to ensembles that by arranging them and bringing different musical worlds together, give them a completely new quality.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”

Programme

Franz Schubert Symphony No. 8 (7) in B minor Unfinished, D.759 [25’]
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante con moto
Johannes Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 [44’]
I. Maestoso
II. Adagio
III. Rondo. Allegro non troppo

Concert description

Like every era, the 19th century had its favorite genres, especially those that were completely new, such as ballads, symphonic poems, and musical drama. Yet inherited genres also continued to be practiced. The pinnacle of musical achievement was still the symphony, while the string quartet is considered a true test of compositional craftsmanship to this day.

Franz Schubert, in addition to making a name for himself with fundamentally Romantic songs, also practiced classical genres, especially quartets and symphonies. Of his most famous Symphony in B minor D. 759, he completed only two movements. Only sketches for the scherzo, without the final movement, have survived. The work came to be known as the Unfinished, and we will probably never know why the composer did not write the third and fourth movements and whether he was satisfied with the work in this form.

Johannes Brahms preferred to expand rather than shorten. However, before completing his “symphonic” four-movement Piano Concerto No. 2, he composed the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor for himself as a soloist in his youth – initially underrated, but today one of the ironclads of the Romantic repertoire.

– Dominika Micał, “Ruch Muzyczny”