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On 28 September 2019 at 7 p.m. at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Jerzy Semkow Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus conducted by Daniel Stabraw, who will also appear as a soloist that evening, will perform symphonic works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert and Andrzej Panufnik.

Andrzej Panufnik, an outstanding Polish composer who resided in Great Britain since the 1950s, has developed his own individual style, a rich and genuine harmonic language in particular; at the same time, he had always been fond of clear forms and showed a visible preference for beautiful melodies and a euphonia of sound, which linked him to the Neoclassical current. All these features can be found in the Violin Concerto composed at the commission of the great violin player Yehudi Menuhin. Shortly before the commission, the composer, who was the son of the splendid luthier Tomasz Panufnik, was given his father’s precious violin previously owned by Dawid Ojstrach. Deeply touched by this gift, he was even more eager to accept the commission. “I believe that when I composed a piece for violin, I was deeply affected by my childhood memories, such as the smell of wood my father made his instruments of, or my mother’s play. Thus, for me, the piece was a form of a journey back, inevitably saturated with the spirit of Poland […] I therefore decided to focus on the violin as an instrument with a warm, expressive sound” – he wrote about his piece. The Concerto’s values and an excellent interpretation of Menuhin contributed to its immense popularity. The piece was played by numerous violinists, eagerly recorded and still remains one of Andrzej Panufnik’s most famous works.

The excellent soloist and conductor, Daniel Stabrawa – the first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and, since 1995, the director and conductor of Capella Bydgostiensis, will complement the concert’s programme with a youthful, charming and melodic Violin Concerto No. 1 by Mozart and Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 (similarly composed by a teenage genius).

Piotr Maculewicz

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: https://sinfoniaiuventus.pl/28wrzesnia/ 

The 17th edition of the Sacrum Profanum Festival will be held between 27 September and 4 October 2019. Itl will feature 14 world premieres and 29 Polish premieres, including works commissioned from Wojtek Blecharz, Kasia Głowicka and Artur Zagajewski (to Inni ludzie by Dorota Masłowska). This year's main theme is "Neighberhood".

The programme will feature six concerts presenting the achievements of Lithuanian composers, including Egidija Medekšaitė, Justė Janulytė and Rytis Mažulis. Four of the programmes were created as part of the residence of the outstanding cellist Anton Lukoszevieze, who will take part in the events as a soloist, conductor, musician and artistic director. The Lithuanian Post-Minimalism concert is a reference to the 2017 Romanian Spectralism programme and yet another event presenting the most characteristic style from a unique, national perspective. The programme will also have no shortage of American minimalism. Once again, we will have an opportunity to listen to the minimalism of the French musician Éliane Radigue, with Katarzyna Głowicka, Polish representative of this genre, on residence in the Netherlands.

The 17th edition of the Sacrum Profanum Festival will also showcase Małe Instrumenty, Kwadrofonik, Zespół Wokalny Gęba and the ICE Ensemble for the first time. Among the avant-garde Polish artists, the Sacrum Profanum Festival will present mainly the works of Lucia Dlugoszewski, an artist who is mostly unknown in our country, active in the USA. Only after last year’s efforts was it possible to find the scores of the composer, who passed away in 2000. Thanks to this, the festival will feature three of her compositions, arranged by Hashtag Ensemble, Arditti Quartet and Reinhold Friedl. It is impossible not to mention Studie in Form – an outstanding composition by Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, a Pole of Jewish origin. Friedl’s solo interpretation will be a world premiere of the work, which seems even more impressive, considering the date of the score – 1954. The concert will be a tribute to the composer on his 100th birthday. Once again, the organisers are going to burden the festival audience with the works by Zbigniew Karkowski, graduate of the local Academy of Music. The whole festival will be presented and artistically commented on by Marta Śniady in the form of a commissioned audiovisual work using recordings from the festival.

Full programme available at: http://sacrumprofanum.com/ 

A concert entitled "Among the Bold Forms" will take place on 27 September 2019 at 7 p.m. at the Lower Silesian Philharmonic. The Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Szymon Makowski.

Bolesław the Bold, op. 8 is the second symphonic poem by Ludomir Różycki. Although its style refers to Wagnerian patterns, it is inspired by the historical drama of the same title written by Stanisław Wyspiański.Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto in A minor is one of the most frequently performed works of its genre, among others thanks to the perfect use of the solo instrument potential. The soloist of the September concert will be Maciej Kułakowski. Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 4 –classified as one of the greatest orchestral works since the time of Ludwig van Beethoven – perfectly demonstrates the power of expression of this form.

More information at: http://filharmonia.jgora.pl/ 

The 8th Bach Family Music Festival will take place on 27-29 September 2019 at the Częstochowa Philharmonic, featuring three unique concerts.

The festival will begin with "A concert in the old style", presenting the delightful Bach's Mass in A major as well as Three Pieces in Old Style by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Old Polish Concert and Triptych of the St Mary's Church by Romuald Twardowski.

The second day is the Seconda Practica performance, especially prepared for the Festival by a duo of producers and live electronic music performers from Łódź: Piotr Matula and Maciej Milczarek. The performance will combine electronic music with baroque inspirations in the form of a concert-improvisation.

The third concert will be a return to the classics, but this time in the rock and jazz style. "BaRock & Roll" is a set of the most famous Baroque motifs in rock and jazz arrangements prepared by Michał Walczak and his band.

Full programme available at: https://www.filharmonia.com.pl/