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Violinist Maciej Łabecki and double bass player Sebastian Wypych will premiere Ignacy Zalewski's Double Concerto on 6 March 2021 at 7.00 p.m. at the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic in Łódź.

The piece was commissioned by the Łódź Philharmonic and dedicated to both soloists. Its premiere was scheduled last year, but it had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Concerto in the form of a dance", as the composer himself describes his work, consists of four movements: tango, waltz, czardas and the finale in the form of a polonaise-fantasia.

Ignacy Zalewski (b. 1990) is a composer, conductor, teacher and promoter of classical music. He has won over 20 awards at composition competitions in the field of classical and incidental music. His works have been performed in the most important Polish concert halls, in most European countries, in the United States, China, Singapore and Vietnam. Zalewski is the author of music for several dozen theatre, television and radio plays. In March 2019, his Symphony. In memory of Dominik Połoński was premiered at the Łódź Philharmonic.

The concert programme will also include the Overture to the opera The Barber of Seville by G. Rossini and Gran duo concertante for violin and double bass by G. Bottesini. The Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra will perform under the baton of Grzegorz Wierus. The concert will be hosted by Piotr Matwiejczuk ("Ruch Muzyczny").

Information about tickets: https://filharmonia.lodz.pl/pl/wydarzenia/koncert-symfoniczny-183 

A Romantic concert by one of the greatest melodists in the history of music and a symphony by a composer who has only now taken his rightful place in the panorama of 20th century composers – we will hear these works on 5 March 2021 at 7.00 p.m. performed by the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic. The evening will be graced by the outstanding violinist Veriko Tchumburidze – winner of the 15th International H. Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań.

Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor is one of the most popular pieces composed in the Romantic era and intended for this instrument. The work was inspired by a meeting with the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, to whom the Czech composer wanted to dedicate it and entrust its premiere. However, the conservative virtuoso was dissatisfied with Dvořák’s non-standard ideas, so he deceived the composer by arguing that he took a long time to learn the solo part in this piece. An impatient Dvořák finally entrusted the world premiere to his countryman František Ondříček, and Joachim never was to play the concerto. The piece is surprisingly light and melodic. The listener is seduced by the charm of singing melodies and the extraordinary creativity of the Czech genius.

Born in Warsaw in 1919, Mieczysław Weinberg left us a very rich and varied output, including over one hundred and fifty compositions. The four-movement Chamber Symphony No. 1, intended for strings, is a late work, written in 1987. It is a Neo-classicist piece that testifies to the great melodic inventiveness of Wajnberg. The mood of this composition is cheerful, almost funny, only in the slow second movement there are more painful and disturbing accents.

Information about tickets: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/component/nfmcalendar/event/8243 

On 5 March 2021 the Szczecin Philharmonic will host for the first time Anastasia Kobekina, a Russian cellist hailed by the European press as the audience's favourite.

She studied in Moscow, Kronberg, Berlin, Paris and Frankfurt, exploring solo, chamber and early music repertoire. In 2015, she won the International TONALi Competition in Hamburg. Since then, she has recorded three albums, featuring among others works by Mieczysław Weinberg and Dmitri Shostakovich. During the last artistic season, she made her debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and went on a concert tour with the orchestra of the Berlin Konzerthaus.

During the upcoming concert, we will hear two pieces performed by Anastasi Kobekina and the Szczecin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Rune Bergmann, both written by composers for their friends. Mieczysław Karłowicz's Serenade in G major  (1897) was dedicated to Zygmunt Butkiewicz, whom the composer met during his three-year stay in Heidelberg (Butkiewicz later became the juror of the first edition of the Chopin Competition and the director of the Music Conservatory in Poznań). Dmitri Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major (1959), was composed for Mstislav Rostropovich, who premiered the work with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Yevgeny Mravinsky. The programme will be complemented by Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 5, composed at the age of 19.

Information about tickets at: https://filharmonia.szczecin.pl/pl 

A concert on 5 March 2021 at 7.30 p.m. at the Krakow Philharmonic will be a prologue to the 2nd Szymanowski / Poland / World Festival.

We will hear Wolfganag Amadeus Mozart's Symphony in G minor KV 550 and Karol Szymanowski's Stabat Mater, Op. 53. These works will be presented by the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir under the baton of Antoni Wit, together with the soloists: Iwona Hossa (soprano), Ewa Marciniec (alto) and Jarosław Bręk (baritone).

According to Małgorzata Janicka-Słysz, the author of Karol Szymanowski's monograph [Poetyka muzyczna Karola Szymanowskiego. Studia i interpretacja], Stabat Mater, Op. 53 for soprano, alto, baritone, mixed choir and orchestra (completed in March 1926) occupies a special place in the composer's oeuvre. Szymanowski, a composer with a "Dionysian" vision of the world, composed a masterpiece of religious music. Assuming that the Latin language had lost its emotional qualities, he used the Polish translation of the medieval sequence by Józef Jankowski. He combined universal values ​​with national values, fusing phrases of Gregorian chant with quotations of Polish religious songs (Gorzkie żale, Stała Matka boleściwa). Stabat Mater was considered to be the fruit of the noblest inspiration, a work endearing with restraint and balance of words and sounds. The work was interpreted in terms of the ideal of national music, and at the same time it was considered a manifesto of the composer's personal religious feelings.

Concert under the honorary patronage of the Hungarian Ambassador in Warsaw, Orsolya Zsuzsanna Kovács; the Marshal of the Małopolska Region, Witold Kozłowski; the Director of the Polish Institute in Prague, Maciej Ruczaj; and the Director of the Polish Institute in Bratislava, Jacek Gajewski.

More information: https://www.filharmonia.krakow.pl/ 

The Polish Cello Quartet has completed many intriguing artistic projects. The next one will be a meeting with the work of the Leipzig Cantor, juxtaposed with works by contemporary composers. The concert will take place on 4 March 2021 at 7.00 p.m. at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław.

Die Kunst der Fuge, or The Art of Fugue, is the last composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. He did not have time to finish it. It consists of fourteen fugues (known as Contrapunctus) and four canons of increasing complexity. The composer did not specify the lineup for which this work was intended, therefore some researchers assumed that it was a purely theoretical, abstract and speculative work, a kind of treatise showing the possibilities of the art of polyphony. For this reason, Die Kunst der Fuge fell into oblivion for years. Even Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel found it a good substitute for the expensive counterpoint lessons. However, later performers appreciated this composition. It was performed by various line-ups: it was played on the harpsichord, organ, piano; several arrangements for orchestra have also been written.

During the concert, we will hear Contrapunctus I, III, V and X. These fugues have been juxtaposed with the works of three contemporary artists. Thierry Escaich is a French organist and composer, known to music lovers visiting the National Forum of Music for his improvised accompaniment to the silent film The Phantom of the Opera. Ground III is his piece from 2008, one of the six to bear this title. The work Flüsterfuge und Zirkelkanon, intended for four cellos or four bassoons, was written by the Swiss composer Heinz Holliger in 2000. The Cello Quartet, on the other hand, is the work of Artur Zagajewski, born in 1978, a music theorist and composer.

Information about tickets: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/component/nfmcalendar/event/8183