Atom String Quartet, one of the most intriguing string quartets in the world made up of great Polish jazz musicians, will perform on 16 August 2020 as part of the 8th Emanacje Music Festival at the Elżbieta and Krzysztof Penderecki Arboretum in Lusławice.
Krzysztof Penderecki gained fame as an uncompromising avant-gardist, and then turned to tradition in an equally uncompromising way. For years he was not afraid of meetings and confrontation with new phenomena in culture. In his career, the composer went through a period of fascination with free jazz music: “I remember that at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s I met Frank Zappa, who liked my music very much and asked me about composing techniques. Around that time, I also wrote a jazz piece which I conducted at the Donaueschingen Festival. ' Actions – a concert album by Penderecki, Don Cherry and The New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra, produced by the legendary Joachim Ernst Berendt and recorded at the festival in Donaueschingen, was released in 1971.
Penderecki continued to inspire new generations of artists. In 2013 Piotr Orzechowski 'Pianohooligan' found in the music of the Polish composer the lost spirit of jazz. In 2019 Krzysztof Penderecki's work was interpreted by the Atom String Quartet. The upcoming concert will feature chamber and solo works from the composer's youthful period, interspersed with Three Pieces in the Old Style, created by the composer from fragments of his film music to The Saragossa Manuscript by Wojciech Jerzy Has. The Capriccio for tuba solo has been expanded in the quartet's interpretation, and the jazz tone distances the piece significantly from the original. An equally radical setting, somewhat humorous, full of dissonances pleasantly irritating the ear, was given in the interpretation of the ensemble to Three Miniatures for clarinet and piano. The closest to the original are Three Pieces in Old Style, which always begin with a quote from the original.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.
Full programme is available at: www.emanacje.pl