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For over 20 years, the Presto Concert Agency has been introducing the work of the great Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin to foreign visitors. The Chopin's Birthday Concert will be held (without audience) on 22 February 2021 at 7.00 p.m. in the seat of the Agency – the Fryderyk Concert Hall in the Old Town – and will be broadcast on its Facebook page. Joanna Sochacka will perform the masterpieces of the Fourth Bard and the music of Grażyna Bacewicz and Alexander Scriabin.

When was Fryderyk Chopin born? Although the answer seems obvious – we are celebrating the composer's birthday on 1 March, and we count the passing years from 1810 – the issue is much more complex. In Chopin's baptism and birth certificate it is written that he was born on 22 February 22 .... That's why the organisers made a decision to celebrate both dates.

1st Chopin Birthday Concert will be performed by Joanna Sochacka, PhD. She is a graduate at the Academy of Music in Łódź in the class of Dr Hab. Hanna Holeksy. She is currently studying at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Graz, Austria, in the class of Prof. Milana Chernyavska. Joanna is a juror of the International Liszt Piano Youth Competitions in China and Utrecht, Elevato International Piano Competitions in Salzburg and Bern, Kreisler International Competition in Bonn, as well as a laureate of many international and national piano competitions. During the upcoming concert, she will perform selected nocturnes, polonaises and preludes by Fryderyk Chopin, as well as Toccata from Sonata No. 2 for piano by Grażyna Bacewicz and Etude "Alla Ballata" in G sharp minor, Op. 8 No. 9 by Alexander Scriabin.

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The Stanisław Moniuszko Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic – European Art Centre in Białystok invites you on 19 February 2021 at 7.00 p.m. for the premiere of a new series of online concerts "Undiscovered Spaces" which will be held on the OiFP YouTube channel.

"Undiscovered spaces" is a series of staged concerts, during which the artists of the Polasie Opera and Philharmonic will present musical works and talk about their composers, the atmosphere of their time, and the contexts of their work. Following this new exciting idea, in the first episode we will climb to the mountain tops frequently visited by the extraordinary composer Mieczysław Karłowicz.

The artists will explore new spaces of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic just like Karłowicz explored the Tatra mountains. The concerts will have a multi-sensory impact on the viewers, they will broaden their knowledge of music and culture and invite them to a new artistic reality. The series will be opened by the episode entitled "Riding a Lift to the Tatra peaks", where the beauty of the mountains will intertwine with the ephemerality and transience characteristic of dreaming. Everything will be united by timelessly beautiful music.

More detailed information can be found at: https://www.oifp.eu/repertuar/winda-towarowa-na-szczyty-tatr/ 

On 19 February 2021 at 7.00 p.m. Adam Tański will perfrom the music by Camille Saint-Saëns, Johann Sebastian Bach as well as his own composition on the 47-pipe organ of the I. J. Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz. The soloist will be accompanied by musicians from the Capella Bydgostiensis Chamber Orchestra of the Pomeranian Philharmonic.

Dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt, Danse Macabre (The Dance of Death), Op. 40 is considered to be Saint-Saëns' most recognizable work. It is actually a waltz, showing the fantastic vision of the French symbolist poet Henri Cazalis. We will hear this piece in Adam Tański's organ transcription.

The organist's Folk Contradanses are an artistic reinterpretation of Kurpie folk dances. Their premiere took place at the "Etnosakralia Kurpiowskie" Festival in 2019, where folk musicians performed alongside professional artists, playing traditional versions of Kurpie dances in alternatim form. The work is usually performed with string quartet, but the composer made an arrangement for string orchestra with organ especially for the concert with Capella Bydgostiensis. 

According to Adam Tański's concept, the arrangement of the chorale from Bach's Heut ist, o Mensch, ein großer Trauertag cantata is an improvised dialogue between organ and string orchestra. The resulting largely improvised music will contrast with the first part of the programme.

More information at: http://www.filharmonia.bydgoszcz.pl/blog/wydarzenia/organy-roli-glownej/ 

Following the Beethoven Year, the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin will present the works of other Viennese classics. On 19 February 2021 at 7.00 p.m. we will hear Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 22 as well as J.S. Bach's choral preludes orchestrated by Zygmunt Mycielski and Wojciech Kilar's Choralvorspiel.

Haydn composed his Symphony No. 22 during his tenure as Vice-Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy. He was in charge of all but religious music in the Esterházy household; in particular he was the leader of the orchestra and was expected to compose symphonies for it to perform. The symphony's nickname "The Philosopher" is not on the original manuscript and is unlikely to have come from Haydn himself. "Le Philosoph" appears on a manuscript copy of the symphony dated from the composer's own lifetime. The title is thought to derive from the melody and counterpoint of the first movement (between the horns and cor anglais), which musically allude to a question followed by an answer and paralleling the disputatio system of debate. The piece's use of a muted tick-tock effect also evokes the image of a philosopher deep in thought while time passes by. As noted by musicologist David Wyn Jones, the nickname "becomes less appropriate as the symphony proceeds and earnestness gives way to high spirits."

The programme of the concert of the Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Łukasz Borowicz will also include Wojciech Kilar's Choralvorspiel for string orchestra and Johann Sebastian Bach's 13 choral preludes from Orgelbüchlein arranged for symphony orchestra by Zygmunt Mycielski.

More information at: https://filharmonia.szczecin.pl/wydarzenia/1465-KILAR__BACH__HAYDN 

The first symphonic concert with the participation of the audience after a long break will take place on 19 February 2021 at 7.00 p.m at the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic. We will hear virtuoso works by Grażyna Bacewicz and Henryk Wieniawski as interpreted by the outstanding Polish violinists – Roman Lasocki and Małgorzata Wasiucionek – as well as Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21 performed by the musicians of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk.

In 1965 Grażyna Bacewicz composed the seventh and the last Violin Concerto in her life. Especially in the first two movements, the orchestra is reduced to the role of the background and does not enter into a dramatic dialogue with the solo instrument, which is usually the domain of a traditional concert. In this work, Bacewicz returns to traditional forms and traditional ways of shaping melodies while maintaining the rich variety of sound colours.

Henryk Wieniawski, an artist who combined concert activity with composing practice, is the author of works that have become a permanent part of the repertoire of virtuosos, such as Fantasia brillante, Op. 20, which is a variation arrangement of themes from the Faust opera by Charles Gounod. The style that combines lyricism with masterful panache determines the uniqueness and popularity of Wieniawski's work.

The concert finale will feature the optimistic Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21 by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Information about tickets: https://www.oifp.eu/repertuar/bacewicz-wieniawski-beethoven/