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The world premiere of Rafał Janiak's opera The Man from Manufaktura will be held on 2 February 2019 on the stage of the Łódź Grand Theatre. Janiak is the Grand Prix and Audience Award winner in the International Opera Composition Competition announed by the Grand Theatre in Łódź along with the Manufaktura Centre and judged by a jury chaired by prof. Krzysztof Penderecki.

The contest was decided on 10 October 2017. The Grand Prix winner, Rafał Janiak, despite of his young age (1986), is already a critically acclaimed composer. Being a man of many talents, he was also entrusted with the task of conducting the orchestra. The artwork is inspired by the history of Łódź. It is based on the libretto written by Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk, playwright and screenwriter whose works have been translated into many languages and staged in Poland and abroad.

The opera is directed by Waldemar Zawodziński, a prominent figure of the Jaracza Theatre in Lodz, where he held the post of director, art director and head of the Theatre. The one responsible for costumes is Maria Balcerak, a multiple award winner for Best Costume Design. Janina Niesobska – The Golden Masks Award Winner, associated with numerous polish Theatres is a choreographer of the performance. The originator and coordinator of the competition is Krzysztof Korwin-Piotrowski, screenwriter and director of many documentaries about famous Poles.

The newest opera is a work about turbulent events in the history of the multicultural Łódź metropolis: a workers' strike against manufacturers in 1892 (the so-called Łódź rebellion), the shutdown of the Poltex factory in 1991 and a vision of the future of this place, now known in Europe as Manufaktura. This is a story about love for Łódź. About the elements. About money. About good fighting evil.

The premiere of an outdoor version of the Man of Manufaktura will be presented on 18 May 2019 in the revitalized post-industrial space of the Manufaktura square.

More information at: http://www.operalodz.com/

To commemorate the 25th death anniversary of Witold Lutosławski, on February 1, 2019 at 7.00 p.m, the musicians of the Łódź Philharmonic will perform a concert devoted to this great composer.

The programme will include Concerto for orchestra – one of Lutosławski's most famous and most frequently performed works. In 1950, the composer received a commission for an extensive and virtuoso composition based on folk themes from Witold Rowicki, then the headof the Warsaw Philharmonic. Rowicki's wish was fulfilled in 1954. Lutosławski was inspired by Béla Bartók's Concerto for orchestra, but of course he draw on Polish folklore. He reached for Mazovian folk songs collected by Oskar Kolberg, which became a subject of far-reaching modifications and transformations. It made the piece acquire an individual, expressive character.

In addition, we will listen to the Three Pieces in Old Style by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, and – for the first time in Łódź – Concerto for flute and chamber orchestra by Krzysztof Penderecki, dedicated to the legendary flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal. The soloist of the evening will be Michael Martin Kofler, a graduate of the Music Academies in Vienna and Basel who is currently the main flutist in the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The Łódź Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by the Philharmonic's Artistic Director Paweł Przytocki.

Information on ticketes at: https://filharmonia.lodz.pl/pl/wydarzenia/koncert-symfoniczny-polscy-mistrzowie-awangardy-w-25-rocznice-smierci-witolda 

On February 1, 2019 at 7:30 p.m., Witold Lutosławski's music will be performed at the National Philharmonic. The outstanding German artist Lars Vogt will perform in a dual role as conductor and pianist. In his interpretation, we will also listen to the Piano Concerto in A Minor by Schumann and Symphony No. 5 by Dvořák.

“Composed in 1938, the Symphonic Variations, arguably one of the best works created worldwide directly before the war, leave us in no doubt as to the essence of the composer’s talent. He focuses here on colour and movement, on attractive virtuosity and lively sound matter, combined with subtle precision in every detail, which shows him as a born miniaturist,” wrote Tadeusz A. Zieliński about Witold Lutosławski’s early cycle. Initiated as a diploma work, the Variations were not eventually used in this role, since they were judged as too avant‑garde by the Warsaw Conservatory teachers.

In the late 1830s Robert Schumann was preoccupied with the idea of creating a concerto of a new type, different from the displays of soloist virtuosity that reigned supreme on the concert stages of that day. In the successive years he returned to this project several times (starting with the concept of a one‑part fantasia), until in 1845 he came up with the Piano Concerto in A Minor Op. 54. Already at the moment of its premiere commentators saw it as the start of a new era for the concerto genre. The work soon conquered concert halls throughout Europe. It was admired (but also initially criticised) for its peculiar synthesis of different genres, the combination of a symphony, a concerto and a sonata. The direction mapped out by Schumann proved attractive for his successors. Great Romantic and neo‑Romantic concertos (especially Grieg’s A Minor Concerto, whose idea is similar to Schumann’s) drew on his concept to a greater or lesser extent.

In Symphony No. 5 Dvořák’s individual style as a national composer and a master of orchestral composition emerges in a distinctive form. Similarly as in the Sixth (composed several years later), the dominant moods in the Fifth are serene, pastoral and idyllic. In the pensive Andante, Dvořák introduces one of his trademarks – the main theme (drawn with broad Slavonic‑ type gestures), entrusted to the cellos. The symphony waited four years for its (well‑ received) premiere. Its Berlin publisher gave it a misleading opus number – higher than those of the next two symphonies.

This concert was produced under the patronage of PWM Edition as part of the project TUTTI.pl promoting the performance of Polish music.

More information at: http://www.filharmonia.pl/koncerty-i-bilety/repertuar/koncert-symfoniczny--powstalo-w-wolnej-polsce6 

Once again, the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra has the opportunity to work with the outstanding American conductor of a lively and dynamic personality – JoAnn Falletta. On February 1, 2019 at 7.30 p.m., and February 2, 2019 at 6:00 p.m., she will conduct works of Copland, Weinberg and Zemlinsky.

The concerts are organized on the occasion of the centennial of the birth of Mieczysław Weinberg – a composer whose works are being rediscovered only two decades after his death. Weinberg's output includes 22 symphonies, four operas and over a hundred other works, including Cello Concerto from 1948, premiered nine years later by Mstislav Rostropovich. This time, the solo part will be performed by Marcin Zdunik – the first prize and Grand Prix winner at the 6th Lutoslawski International Cello Competition in Warsaw.

The programme of the concert evenings at the Kraków Philharmonic will also include El Salon Mexico by Aaron Copland – one of JoAnn Falletta's favorite composers, and Die Seejungfrau by Alexander von Zemlinsky.

Information on tickets at: http://www.filharmonia.krakow.pl/

The year of Adam Asny is behind us, but to end the celebrations, another concert will take place. On February 1, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. in the concert hall of the Kalisz Philharmonic, Ewa Iżykowska and Sebastian Karpiela-Bułecka ensemble will meet on one stage.

The concert will consist entirely of Polish music. The programme includes a very rare funeral march for symphonic orchestra The Shades of Adam Asnyk by Zygmunt Noskowski and his Highlander's fantasy, as well as fragments inspired by highlander music in Karol Szymanowski's Harnasie, performed by Sebastian Karpiel-Bułecka ensemble in the original version.

In addition, the evening will feature the world premiere of Asnyk's Sonnets by Piotr Moss. The works will be presented by the Częstochowa Philharmonic Choir "Collegium Cantorum" and the Kalisz Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Adam Klocek. Soprano Ewa Iżykowska, who is a professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, will perform as a soloist.

More information at: http://filharmoniakaliska.pl/news/koncert-na-zakonczenie-obchodow-roku-adama-asnyka/147