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"Who is able to stand?" is the slogan of the 12th edition of the New Epiphanies International Festival organised by the Centre for the Thought of John Paul II, a cultural institution of the Capital City of Warsaw. This year's edition will be held online between 17 February and 28 March 2021. The programme features nine theatre premieres, a series of early music concerts, workshops and a culinary event.

Last year's edition was interrupted by the pandemic. The organisers are curious how the artists will interpret the theme of the Festival this year. Behind the festival events stand new and exciting artistic discoveries as well as insights and ideas that allow one to move on, even from the most difficult position. The main theme of the 12th edition is the apocalypse understood both in the literal sense as a revelation, and in the sense given to it by tradition – as a catastrophe. Michał Senk, director of the Centre for the Thought of John Paul II, points out: "The leitmotif of this year's Festival – the apocalyptic 'Who is able to stand?' – is an opportunity to face the subject of the End Times in conditions in which we see that the biblical vision is penetrating directly into our reality”.

This year's theatrical programme consists of nine premieres, including Cassandra (21 February) directed by Zofia Gustowska with music by the guitarist and composer Michał Lazar. "In this year's early music programme, we look at different ends of the world: the extinction of genres, instruments and styles," emphasize Sonia Wronkowska and Łukasz Kozak, curators of the music programme. The futuristic approach, i.e. the biblical apocalypse, is just one of the possible interpretations of the theme of the Festival. The humanistic approach, in turn, draws attention to the fate of individual people, for example, great musicians falling victim to an epidemic. In history, we have experienced the great extinction of the clavichord or viola da gamba, Polish traditional music or the Earth's ecosystems. Stylistic breakthroughs brought an end to some music genres, and allowed others to develop”.

All Festival events – including the free ones – are ticketed.

Full programme is available at: www.noweepifanie.pl 

Witold Lutosławski's 10 Polish Dances, Andrzej Krzanowski's Symphony No. 2, and Martyna Kosecka's Clarinet Concerto will make up the programme of the February edition of the "Resounds. New Polish Music" series on 27 February 2021 at 8.00 p.m. A pre-concert meeting with Martyna Kosecka, Szymon Bywalec and Magdalena Stochniol (music theorist), hosted by Agata Kwiecińska, will start at 7:00 p.m. Both the meeting and the concert will be live streamed on Sinfonia Varsovia’s YouTube channel and Facebook.

The February concert will start with rarely performed neoclassical miniatures by Witold Lutosławski, one of the most important composers of the 20th century. Sinfonia Varsovia under the baton of Szymon Bywalec will present his 10 Polish Dances (1951), a suite inspired by Silesian and Kashubian folklore.

Then we will hear Symphony No. 2 for 13 string instruments (1983-84) by Andrzej Krzanowski, a representative of the 'Stalowa Wola generation' (named after the festival in Stalowa Wola, where numerous composers made their debuts). The three-part chamber piece was commissioned by Elżbieta and Krzysztof Penderecki and dedicated to them.

In Concerto for clarinet and multipercussion (2019), Martyna Kosecka refers to the division into the movements marked as Hésitant (with hesitatiion) and Direct (directly) proposed by Lutosławski. As in her other works, she explores unconventional combinations of colours and microtonal harmony. Radosław Soroka (clarinet) and Karol Krasiński (drums) will perform as soloists.

More information: www.sinfoniavarsovia.org 

The National Forum of Music invite you on 28 February 2021 at 6 p.m. to a concert featuring 20th-century choral music. We will hear diverse works by four composers, performed by the NFM Choir conducted by Lionel Owl.

Born in 1948, the Danish composer and conductor Bo Holten is a prolific artist with a wide range of interests. The concert will begin with a piece by Holten, In Nomine, written in 1999 and lasting less than 5 minutes. Then we will listen to the Mass for a double choir by the Swiss composer Frank Martin, written between 1922 and 1926. It consists of five canonical sections that make up the ordinarium missae: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. The composer agreed to have the work performed only at the beginning of the 1960s. He had considered it to be such a personal expression of his religious feelings that he did not want to share it with anyone. It is simple, raw, beautiful and at the same time devoid of musical ostentation.

The next composition will be Krzysztof Penderecki's Stabat Mater, completed in 1963. With this work, the composer surprised the audience a lot, because earlier he had gained fame for his radical, avant-garde compositions, whereas his Stabat Mater seemed simple and beguilingly conservative. While the way of leading the melody in the initial section of the piece may bring to mind Gregorian chant, later the choir sings in falsetto, recites "quasi una litania" and whispers. In the dissonant expressive culmination, Penderecki used clusters characteristic of the twentieth-century avant-garde. At the end, the consonant chords return, creating a pure D major chord on the word "gloria". This unique mixture of styles was used to create a composition that is strikingly original and deeply moving. The programme will culminate in a monumental arrangement of the Our Father prayer, composed in 1909 by Max Reger.

More information at: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/en/component/nfmcalendar/event/8162 

When spring comes and Time to say goodbye – the concerts performed by the choir and musicians from the Szczecin Opera Orchestra conducted by Małgorzata Bornowska will take place on 27 and 28 February 27 2021 at the Castle Opera in Szczecin.

Szczecin opera singer, actor and director Mirosław Kosiński will take the audience on a sentimental musical journey. The first part of the concert consists entirely of works by Maciej Małecki. We will hear love songs to the poetry of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer and songs to words by Wojciech Młynarski, Agnieszka Osiecka and Elżbieta Szeptyńska for a cappella mixed choir, expressing the longing for unrequited love, true friendship, lost youth, and the long-awaited spring.

The second part will present the musical evergreens – songs from movies, musicals and the world of so-called popular music, including Moon river from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, Time to say goodbye and Besame mucho.

Tickets for unassigned seats are on sale with the venue capacity limited to 50%.

Full programme is available at: https://www.opera.szczecin.pl/repertuar/kiedy-przyjdzie-wiosna 

The contemporary Polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki was one of the admirers of Wagner's work. The drama about the history of legendary lovers is reflected in one of his last, unfinished compositions: Two Tristan Postludes and Chorale, Op. 82, which will be performed on 27 February 2021 at 6.00 p.m. at the Warsaw Philharmonic.

Similar to several other unfinished compositions, the work was prepared for concert performance by the composer's son, Mikołaj Górecki. The postludes allude to Tristan, as if stopping, stretching in time, reflecting and subtly transfiguring a few selected motifs. The first postlude is based on a fragment of the poignant complaint of the twice-betrayed King Mark from Act II, the second – among others, on themes of the famous Vorspiel.

After his involvement in the events of the May Revolution in Dresden in 1849, Richard Wagner and his wife Minna had to seek refuge in Switzerland, where they were hosted by Otto Wesendonck, a merchant and patron of the composer. The host's wife, Mathilde, was also admirer of the musician's talent, and soon a tender affection developed between them. Wagner rarely resorted to texts other than his own – the exceptions are the poems by Mathilde Wesendonck, arranged by him in 1857-58. Great attention was devoted to what extent this difficult relationship influenced the final shape of the music drama Tristan and Isolde, which was being created at the same time. Wagner himself admitted that writing these songs was a kind of compositional study for Tristan, which was reflected in Im Treibhaus and Träume. The Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Thomas Rösner and soprano Ewa Vesin will present the songs in chamber arrangement by Ronald Kornfeil.

Franz Schreker was valued by his contemporaries especially as a composer of operas, but he created works of various genres, and among his orchestral compositions, the grateful Chamber Symphony from 1916 gained special and relatively lasting popularity. One-movement (but composed of several segments, similar to cyclical forms), the work for 23 performers delights with its rich texture and colour, and a special, dreamlike aura, especially in the introductory episode.

Piotr Maculewicz

More information at: http://www.filharmonia.pl/koncerty-i-bilety/repertuar/koncert-symfoniczny270