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4th International Festival of the Wieniawski Brothers

2017 edition of the International Festival of the Wieniawski Brothers will be held between February 10 and March 10 at the Lublin Philharmonic.

The event is a tribute to two artists - Henryk and Józef Wieniawski, as well as an opportunity to become familiar with their works and compositions of other eminent world-class composers.

The opening concert featuring Semiramis, Op. 52 for choir and orchestra by Józef Wieniawski, Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 by Sergei Prokofiev and Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" in C minor by Gustav Mahler will be performed by soprano Dorota Wójcik, mezzosoprano Urszula Kryger, pianist Lukas Geniušas, Chamber Choir "Gloria" (Lviv), Choir and Symphony Orchestra of the Lublin Philharmonic under Wojciech Rodek. The concert is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage ("Philharmonic. Caution, it draws you in!" programme, implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance).

The festival programme includes also compositions by Antoni Stolpe, Juliusz Zarębski, Fryderyk Chopin, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Stanisław Moniuszko, Anton Bruckner, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Krzysztof Penderecki.

Tickets available on-line at: www.filharmonialubelska.pl

Koncert „Orkiestra Pokoleń"

3 lutego 2017 roku o godz. 18:30 w Filharmonii Opolskiej im. Józefa Elsnera będzie miał miejsce Koncert „Orkiestra Pokoleń" w ramach obchodów 800-lecia Miasta Opola, podczas którego zabrzmią dzieła Witolda Lutosławskiego i Józefa Świdra.

W koncercie „Orkiestra Pokoleń" w ramach obchodów 800-lecia Miasta Opola oraz Jubileuszu Państwowej Szkoły Muzycznej I i II st. im. F. Chopina w Opolu weźmie udział Orkiestra Symfoniczna Absolwentów PSM w Opolu pod dyrekcją Huberta Prochoty. W roli solistów wystąpią Sławomir Lackert (obój), Piotr Kosarga (skrzypce) i Alina Adamska-Raitarovskyi (sopran).

W programie znajdą się Uwertura do opery Jaś i Małgosia Engelberta Hunperdinga, Poéme op.25 Ernesta Chaussona, Wariacje Enigma Edwarda Elgara, a także Tryptyk Śląski Witolda Lutosławskiego oraz Koncert na obój i orkiestrę Józefa Świdra (w wersji z 2013 roku).

ZOBACZ: wydarzenie na FB.

Concert on the 140th Anniversary of Feliks Nowowiejski’s Birth

Warmia and Mazury Philharmonic in Olsztyn will host a concert on February 5, 2017 marking the 140th anniversary of Feliks Nowowiejski’s birth.

Nowowiejski spent WWI in Berlin serving as a member of a military orchestra. At the end of the war, he settled in Poznań where he actively participated in reviving the cultural life of the city by organizing symphonic, choral and organ concerts, and by working as a teacher. At that time, he composed several patriotic songs, arrangements of folk music (such as 25 Polish Folk Songs from Warmia), opera The Legend of the Baltic, choral compositions (Missa pro Pace, Missa Stella Maris) and cantatas.

The concert celebrating the 140th anniversary of composer’s birth will be performed by Cantores Varmienses Choir (dir. by Benedykt Błoński), tenor Szymon Rona, pianist Agnieszka Panasiuk, and actress Irena Telesz.

Tickets available on-line at: www.bilety.filharmonia.olsztyn.pl

Andrzej Nikodemowicz dies at 92

Polish composer, pianist and music teacher Andrzej Nikodemowicz died at the age of 92 on January 28, 2017.

He studied chemistry at the Lviv Technical University, as well as composition with Adam Sołtys and piano with Tadeusz Majerski at the Lviv Conservatory, where he worked as a lecturer in 1951-73 until he was made redundant for his religious beliefs. In 1980 he moved to Lublin and began teaching at the Maria Skłodowska-Curie University and the Catholic University. In 1982-92 he was a choirmaster at the Higher Catholic Seminary. In 1995, he was granted the title of professor. As a pianist, Nikodemowicz played his own and classical compositions until his career was brought to an end by a hand illness. He won several prizes at numerous composition competitions and received, among others, the award granted by the Polish Composers’ Union (2000) and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2000). He was an honorary member of the Polish Composers’ Union and the president of its Lublin branch in 1989-2017.

The memorial service and funeral will be held on February 1, 2017 at 1.00 pm at the Lublin Archcathedral (10 Królewska Street).

Piano Recital by Rafał Aleksander Łuszczewski

Rafal Aleksander Łuszczewski will perform a piano recital on January 27, 2017 at the Warmia and Mazury Philharmonic in Olsztyn.

The programme includes 4 Mazurkas, Op. 50 (dedicated to Artur Rubinstein) by Karol Szymanowski, 4 Impromptus. D. 899 by Franz Schubert, and 4 Ballads by Fryderyk Chopin.

The pianist made his international debut at the age of 16 with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. Since 2001 he has been listed as a Steinway Artist on the "Steinway & Sons Artists’ Roster" in New York. He has travelled across Europe, North and South America, Australia, Middle East, Asia and Africa, giving performances that gathered the acclaim from the audience and music critics. He received several prizes at international piano competitions and made numerous recordings for TV and radio stations (including Polish Radio, Swiss Classical Radio, Australian Broadcast Corp., National Public Radio in the USA), as well as for Japanese, Polish, Swiss and German record labels. He was the initiator of the Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition held in Lima (Peru) and Ecuador.

Tickets available on-line at: www.filharmonia.olsztyn.pl

"Halka" by Stanisław Moniuszko - Opera Rara

The two-act, Vilnius version of Halka by Stanisław Moniuszko will be staged on January 31 and February 1-2, 2017 at the Opera Rara Festival in Krakow.

"The work tells the heartbreaking story (…) that contrasts the tragedy of a highland girl with the wedding of the hypocritical Janusz, her beloved. Suspended between the two different worlds: the degenerate aristocracy and the people burning with a desire for revenge, the desperate Halka is a tool of sharp social criticism in the hands of Moniuszko and the librettist Włodzimierz Wolski" (source: www.operarara.pl).

The Krakow production, directed by Cezary Tomaszewski, will be interpreted by sopranos Natalia Kawałek and Małgorzata Rodek, tenor Jakub Pawlik and baritone Sebastian Szumski who will be accompanied by Capella Cracoviensis, playing the historical instruments and conducted by Jan Tomasz Adamus.

More information: www.operarara.pl

Koncert symfoniczny dedykowany Festiwalowi Witolda Lutosławskiego „Łańcuch XIV”

27 i 28 stycznia 2017 roku w Filharmonii Narodowej będą miały miejsce koncerty Orkiestry i Chóru FN pod dyrekcją Jacka Kaspszyka, podczas których zabrzmią III Symfonia Witolda Lutosławskiego oraz Cudowny mandaryn op. 19 Béli Bartóka – pantomima w 1 akcie na chór i orkiestrę.

„Mogę przyznać, że czułbym się zaszczycony, gdyby udało mi się wyrazić coś, co może być związane z przeżyciami nie tylko moimi osobistymi, ale również innych ludzi" – tak, z właściwą sobie powściągliwością w ponurym roku 1983 Witold Lutosławski skomentował (subtelnie się od nich odżegnując) interpretacje jego Trzeciej, które próbowały wiązać to dzieło z opresją stanu wojennego. Z perspektywy niemal ćwierćwiecza od premiery arcydzieła łączącego perfekcję muzycznej konstrukcji z niezwykłą intensywnością i komunikatywnością ekspresji jawi się ono jako utwór w pełni autonomiczny, potwierdzający każdym wykonaniem swą szczególnie wysoką pozycję w całej symfonice dwudziestego stulecia.

Szokujący, zdjęty z afisza zaraz po premierze z powodu brutalności libretta, balet-pantomima Cudowny mandaryn Beli Bartóka jest arcydziełem muzycznego ekspresjonizmu. Tytułowa postać, mimo egzotycznego miana i kostiumu niewiele ma wspólnego z orientem, jest raczej symbolem nadludzkiej niemal potęgi, która ku swej zgubie ulega namiętności – wdziękom Dziewczyny, kurtyzany, będącej narzędziem bandytów mordujących i rabujących jej gości. Muzyka, opracowana później przez kompozytora w formie suity i tak najczęściej wykonywana, doskonale oddaje przerażającą grozę opowieści, z wykorzystaniem bogatej palety śmiałych środków wyrazu i pełnego spektrum barw orkiestrowych.

Szczegółowe informacje – na stronie: http://filharmonia.pl

Piano Recital on Karol Szymanowski’s 80th Death Anniversary

Pianist Radosław Sobczak will give a recital commemorating the 80th anniversary of Karol Szymanowski’s death on January 31, 2017 at the Warsaw Philharmonic.

The programme includes compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, Alberto Ginastera and Karol Szymanowski.

"Exuberant virtuosity is a distinguishing feature of Schubert’s great Fantasie in C Major, Op. 15 on the motifs of the song Der Wanderer. Even today this fantasy remains one of the most demanding tests of instrumental skill. The work exemplifies an important source of Romantic inspiration: references to a vocal piece, its musical motifs and its text. (…) Sonata No. 2 [by Karol Szymanowski] marks an important stylistic caesura in the composer’s output, ending the post-Romantic phase which had begun with his earliest surviving music - Preludes written by an 18-year-old Szymanowski at the frontier manor in Tymoszówka (now Timoshivka in Ukraine). Still distinctly influenced by Chopin and Scriabin, they already foreshadow his later musical explorations and bear testimony to the young artist’s highly original talent." (source: www.filharmonia.pl)

Tickets available on-line at: www.filharmonia.bilety24.pl

"Soundlab" - LAB 4: El-cello – Bauer / Duchnowski

Andrzej Bauer and Cezary Duchnowski will give a performance LAB 4: El-cello – Bauer / Duchnowski held as part of the "Soundlab" concert series on January 28, 2017 at the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin.

Andrzej Bauer is a cellist and composer who has given recitals in Europe, the USA and Japan and initiated several artistic projects (including "Cellotronicum" performed at the Warsaw Autumn). Cezary Duchnowski is a composer specializing in writing electronic music. He was one of the founders of the Computer Composition Studio at the Academy of Music in Wrocław. The artists’ long-term collaboration resulted in several concerts and release of the album El Derwid – Sun spots, which they recorded with Agata Zubel.

The 2nd edtion of the project "Soundlab – Philharmonic Laboratory of Electronic Music in Szczecin" is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

More information: www.filharmonia.szczecin.pl