National Museum in Szczecin (3 Wały Chrobrego St.) will host a concert entitled 400 Years of Violin Music organized by the Academy of Early Music Foundation on January 29, 2016.
Violinist Stefan Plewniak, Foundation's artist-in-residence in season 2015/16, will perform works composed by Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henryk Wieniawski, Nicolo Paganini, Fritz Kreisler, Grażyna Bacewicz and Krzysztof Baculewski.
More information: www.famd.pl
Lutosławski Quartet will premiere Andrzej Kwieciński's String Quartet on January 21, 2016 in the National Forum of Music in Wrocław.
The ensemble continues to promote the 20th- and 21st-century Polish music. Apart from the new composition, the artists will perform also String Quartet composed by their patron.
Programme:
Witold Lutosławski - String Quartet (1964)
Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 3 Op. 73 (1946)
Andrzej Kwieciński - String Quartet (2016)
More information: www.nfm.wroclaw.pl
Polish Chamber Choir conducted by Jan Łukaszewski will perform compositions by Krzysztof Penderecki on January 30, 2016 at 6.00 pm in the Artus Court in Gdańsk.
The programme of the concert, attended by Krzysztof Penderecki himself, features composer’s 10 works, such as Psalm No. 3, fragments of oratorio Dies Illa and premiere performance of Christmas pastorale My też pastuszkowie (We the Shepherds).
Meccore String Quartet launched a video clip promoting ensemble’s new album Szymanowski & Debussy, which was released in October 2015 by Warner Music Poland.
Established in 2007, the Meccore String Quartet received many international awards. The group studied with Artemis Quartett at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and in the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel’s chamber music masterclass in Brussels. They further developed their skills during masterclasses run by outstanding artists, such as: Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg Quartet), Cuarteto Casals, Vogler Quartett, Kuss Quartett, Barthold Kuijken, Heime Müller, Antonello Farulli, Peter Cropper (Lindsay String Quartet). The artists performed in many prestigious concert halls, they also organize the International Chamber Music Festival Q’arto Mondi and work for charity.
Video Clip: www.youtube.com
Directed and produced by Wojciech Klimala; choreography by Izabela Szostak.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.
Michał Dobrzyński’s Operetta based on Witold Gombrowicz’s drama will be staged again in the Warsaw Chamber Opera. The performances, directed by Jerzy Lach and conducted by Przemysław Fiugajski, will be held on February 5 and 6, and May 18 and 19, 2016.
Operatic interpretation of the work that took Gombrowicz 15 years to complete gives the authors an opportunity to present a true drama - the enslavement of man in this day and age. Grotesque artfully blended with absurd will let the moment when frivolous giggles dissolve into painful laughter slip unnoticed. By using operetta's distinctive traits the performance conveys to the audience the destructive nature of the present-day reality. According to the authors’ intention, the play is a parody of parodies from behind which emerges a distorted view of the present. The minimalism and austerity of the stage design combined with flamboyant costumes succeed in focusing the attention of the audience on the characters who struggle to escape their confines.
As the director Jerzy Lach describes, "the realm of drama is being built on a contrast between the operetta seen as frivolity and thoughtlessness, and a story imbued with pathos, fear and pain that makes people resort to nudity, their only vague hope".
Source: www.operakameralna.pl
Premiere screening of the multimedia, reportage produced by Gazeta Wyborcza and Radio Katowice in cooperation with the Orchestra’s PR department, will be held on January 15, 2016 at 6.00 pm in the Chamber Hall at 1 Kilara Sq.
The film, made on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, will be next available at: www.katowice.wyborcza.pl
More information: www.nospr.org.pl
Sinfonietta Cracovia under the baton of John Axelrod will perform compositions by Stravinsky, Kilar, Lutosławski and Kodály on February 5, 2016 in the Siemiradzki Hall of the Gallery of 19th-century Polish Art at Sukiennice in Krakow.
John Axelrod was Sinfonietta’s conductor-in-residence during the years 2001-2009. Under his baton the orchestra together with Camerata Silesia participated in the recording session of the BBC programme Holocaust; A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz, having documented the performance of fragments of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki's Symphony No. 3 given in the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The programme received the International Emmy Award in 2005.
At present John Axelrod is the artistic director of the Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla and principal conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi.
Programme:
Igor Stravinsky - Apollon musagète
Zoltán Kodály - Dances of Galánta
Witold Lutosławski - Dance Preludes
Wojciech Kilar - Orawa
More information: www.sinfonietta.pl
Harpsichordist Marcin Świątkiewicz received Polityka’s ”Passport” Award 2015 at the ceremony held on January 12, 2016 in the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw.
Other artists nominated in the "classical music" category were singer Barbara Kinga Majewska and pianist Krzysztof Książek.
"Passport" is an annual award granted by the weekly magazine Polityka since 1993. It is presented in 7 categories: literature, film, theatre, classical music, visual arts, scene, and creator of culture.
A new Composition Competition for solo carillon work has been announced.
The composition in question, meant to serve as musical illustration for Hevelius Fountain in Gdańsk, should last around 12 minutes and be suitable for performance on carillon at St. Catherine’s Church in Gdańsk (both for manual and automatic play). The competition is open to Polish composers. Applicants may enter more than one composition.
Closing date: March 21, 2016
Organizers: Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk, GIWK (Gdańsk Water and Wastewater Infrastructure), Historical Museum of the City of Gdańsk and Polish Carillon Society.
St. Catherine’s Church (Museum of Tower Clocks) as well as the Moniuszko Academy of Music will also host carillon workshops led by Monika Kaźmierczak on January 20, 2016.
