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After analyzing the COVID-19 case data, the Council of Ministers developed a comprehensive plan and assumptions for the coming 100 days. The so-called responsibility stage will be in force from 28 November to 27 December 2020. A decision was made to further suspend the activities of the cultural institution.

The new solutions were discussed during the meetings of the Medical Council, the Economic Crisis Staff and the Government Crisis Management Team, as well as meetings with analysts and legislators of the Prime Minister's Office and the Government Legislation Center. As part of the work, three draft regulations on restrictions, orders and bans in connection with the state of the epidemic were prepared.

In accordance with the regulation of the Council of Ministers on the establishment of certain restrictions, orders and bans, until 27 December, entrepreneurs (within the meaning of the provisions of the Act of 6 March 2018 – Entrepreneurs' Law) and other entities conducting creative activity related to all collective forms of culture and entertainment are allowed to conduct certain activities without the participation of the public: 1) activities necessary to prepare artistic events, such as rehearsals and exercises; 2) phonographic and audiovisual recordings; 3) events transmitted by means of direct remote communication.

Until 27 December, a restriction on the activities of public and scientific libraries, cultural institutions and other entities operating on the basis of the provisions of the Act of 21 November 1996 on museums (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 902) shall be established, consisting in the prohibition of: 1) making the collections available to the public; 2) organisation of events with the participation of the public – with the exception of activities carried out by means of direct remote communication and making the collections available in a non-contact form, in compliance with the relevant sanitary requirements.

More information at: https://www.gov.pl/web/koronawirus/100-dni-solidarnosci-w-walce-z-covid-19 

Music is always a good way to improve one’s mood in difficult moments, and although we all experience them we do not give up. Thus, The Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra also wants to bring some sunshine and smile on a November evening before St. Andrew’s Day with a unique concert on 28 November 2020 at 8 p.m., different from most of the concerts this season!

This time there will be lots of beautiful singing and a dazzling cross-section of vocal music (with orchestral interludes) from different periods and genres. Excellent soloists admired on different concert scenes in Poland and abroad will present several opera’s “greatest hits” – famous arias by Italian grandmasters of this genre: Donizetti and Verdi. The French Romantic art will resound in Bizet’s aria from the immortal Carmen. The artists will also recall the humorous and charming world of operetta in fragments from compositions by Kálmán, Lehár and Zeller. The impressive programme will be complemented by popular, film and musical music, composed by both still famous artists and those somewhat forgotten, who deserve to be recalled.

The concert will be conducted by Sławomir Chrzanowski, the long-standing artistic director of the Zabrze Philharmonic, the orchestra with which he performed at over 2000 concerts in several countries! The artist has also given concerts with the majority of Polish orchestras and numerous prestigious ensembles abroad, including the MWC Symphony Orchestra in Fredericksburg (USA), of which he is the honorary conductor, Chicago Philharmonic or Wuhan Symphony Orchestra (China).

Piotr Maculewicz

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

The concert will be broadcast on YouTube and on the website: https://sinfoniaiuventus.pl/ 

After 40 years of hibernation, the Young Musicians for a Young City Festival will resume in Stalowa Wola on 27–28 November 2020. The concerts will take place without the audience and will be recorded and broadcast online.

The reactivated Festival is an important part of the history of the city of Stalowa Wola, as well as a significant point in the modern history of music. The MMMM [Młodzi Muzycy Młodemu Miastu] Festival, held in the years 1975-1980, brought together a young generation of composers called the "Stalowa Wola Generation". Musicians, ambassadors of Stalowa Wola: Ewa Strusińska, Marcin Albert Steczkowski and Aleksandra Kopp, as well as composers active during the first editions of the MMMM Festival – Eugeniusz Knapik and Aleksander Lasoń, were invited to reactivate the MMMM 2.0 Festival.

This year's online edition of the event includes concerts of famous Polish artists  – Zygmunt Krauze and proMODERN ensemble – as well as the final concert of the "Young Musicians for a Young City Festival 2.0" Composers' Competition. Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble, one of the best ensembles specializing in the performance of contemporary music, will present pieces by the competition finalists: Viacheslav Kyrylov, Krystian Neścior, Jakub Pawlak, Kamil Polak and Filip Sporniak. The concert will be followed by the announcement of the winners and the award ceremony.

Full programme is available at: http://mmmmfestiwal.pl/ 

It can be said that the next Internet Concert scheduled for Friday 27 November 2020 at the Tadeusz Szeligowski Poznań Philharmonic is a… double jubilee concert. In 2020 we celebrate the 95th death anniversary of Roman Statkowski, coming from Szczypiorno near Kalisz, and the 200th birthday anniversary of Michał Bergson.

Roman Statkowski composed the two-act opera Filenis, based on a libretto inspired by Herman Erler’s drama, in 1987. The work had to wait seven years for the Warsaw premiere. It was not staged until a year after an international success in 1903, when the piece won the 1st prize at an international competition in London. Filenis, as well as the second opera of the composer, Maria (based on the same-titled poetic novel by Antoni Malczewski) are among the most outstanding artistic achievements of Roman Statkowski.

By that concert the Poznań Philharmonic would like to present the figure of Michał Bergson, a Polish composer of Jewish origin. The Bergson family, which included numerous eminent merchants and bankers, had played a significant role in creating the city of Warsaw for several generations. Incorporating the music of Michał Bergson in the concert’s repertoire was directly inspired by the discovery of the manuscript of Concerto symphonique pour piano avec orchestre, Op. 62 in a London antiquarian bookshop and its purchase by the Poznań Philharmonic. The finder was Jonathan Plowright, an excellent British pianist, who will perform the concerto and who, along with the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra led by Łukasz Borowicz, recorded an album with Michał Bergson’s music. The CD, published by DUX label and titled "Michał Bergson, Concerto symphonique pour piano avec orchestre, Op. 62/ Music from the opera Luisa di Monfort" was released at the beginning of November and is another world premiere in the discography of Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra.

The recording will be available on the Poznań Philharmonic's YouTube channel.

The title of a debut album of Krzysztof Komendarek-Tymendorf, ReVIOLAtion, is far from coincidental and implies a "viola revolution". The disc released by Naxos Records will be out for sale from 27 November 2020.

To many music professionals and aficionados, the viola continues to occupy a lower position on the podium in a unique competition for the laurels of primacy among string instruments. Krzysztof Komendarek- Tymendorf goes out to prove (and does so most convincingly!) the viola to be a truly versatile medium. In that his efforts are in line with Prof. Piotr Reichert’s opinion that only a performance delivered by an excellent violist is distinguished by both the level of virtuosity typical of a violinist and the cello’s depth of sound. At the same time, the titular “revolution” refers to promoting a repertoire hitherto unknown to the general public.

In the case of the artist’s first solo album, the works worth mentioning in this respect are sonatas by Fyodor Druzhinin and Mieczysław Weinberg. The musician got to know them in-depth while preparing his doctoral dissertation. He was also the first in Poland to perform a recording of the above works (he is the author of their bowing and fingering arrangement). ReVIOLAtion should also be understood as reinterpretation of the program presented on the album. For Krzysztof Komendarek-Tymendorf, it entails extremely important artistic freedom since he decodes each work individually through the prism of his own experience, which often results in an intriguing – sometimes controversial – interpretative concept. The repertoire chosen by the artist, including Capriccio “Hommage à Paganini” Op. 55 by the Belgian violin genius Henri Vieuxtemps, offers an excellent opportunity to present this interpretative vision and to show the full range of sound and technical capabilities of the instrument. The album could not lack a Polish accent, hence Grażyna Bacewicz’s Polish Caprice (1909–1969). The final piece on the album is a true virtuoso gem which requires the performer to overcome a number of technical problems while maintaining a dance-like, folk character in the neo-Classical spirit.

The word "ReVIOLAtion" lies close to "revelation", and a "revelation", paraphrasing the definitions of the term offered by the Oxford Dictionary of English, makes people witness something they have hitherto been unaware of, something extraordinary, secret or reverend. Undoubtedly, the repertoire on the album and its creative rendition by Krzysztof Komendarek-Tymendorf meet these criteria.

Agnieszka Nowok-Zych (Translation by: Dominika Pieczka)

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre  POLMIC.

https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.551432