The Polish Composers' Union, PWM Edition and the Konstanty Gorski Music Society on the 26th of April, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. invite you to a music and art gathering 'Resurrection of Music: The Forgotten Composer Konstanty Gorski. The Lost Opera "Margier" and the full reconstruction of its score by conductor Ivan Kostyakhin'. The event, featuring Maestro Kostyakhin, as well as the Polish Composers Union President Mieczysław Kominek, Grzegorz Seroczyński - the head of the recently established Konstanty Gorski Music Society - and artists who will present excerpts from the work, will take place at the Polish Music Edition office in the center of Warsaw (Fredry 8 street). Admission is free!
WHO WAS THE AUTHOR OF "MARGIER"?
This remarkable artist, active and significant on the map of musical culture of his time, lived the life of an "eternal migrant" and, probably, for this reason he is almost completely forgotten today. Composer, violinist, and teacher Konstanty Gorski was born in 1859 in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in Lida, now a city in Belarus), died in 1924 in Poznań, studied in Grodno, Vilnius, Warsaw, and St. Petersburg, worked in Georgia, Ukraine, and in the reborn Second Polish Republic. His beautiful music deserves to be popularized especially since next year marks the 100th anniversary of Konstanty Gorski's death.
FIRST RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCORE OF "MARGIER"
The content of Konstanty Gorski's three-act opera "Margier" based on the poem by Vladislav Syrokomla provides examples of dramatic, sacrificial patriotism. The action takes place in the 14th century on the Neman River and at Malbork Castle: legend has it that Lithuanian prince Margier, together with the garrison of his castle in Punah and the surrounding population, heroically resisted a Teutonic siege. Gorski created his first opera during his Kharkiv period, as evidenced by the piano score released in 1905, which is kept in the University Library in Poznań. The handwritten score of the work, staged in 1927 at the Grand Theater in Poznań (already after the composer's death), burned down during World War II.
Only this year, as part of the InBelKult 2.0 project, opera conductor and choirmaster Ivan Kostyakhin became the first to reconstruct the full score. The cast is impressive: a large symphony orchestra, choir, and soloists.
We invite you to participate in a meeting and discussion dedicated to the presentation of the reconstructed score. As a treat for music lovers, young artists will perform excerpts of the opera, accompanied on the piano by the maestro himself.