news

Olsztyn | The concert filled with singing

On 6 April 2018 at 7.00 the Warmia and Mazury Philharmonic invites lovers of arias and songs for the concert, which will be the final of the 7th Zdzisław Skwary National Vocal Competition "Mława 2018". The competition is organized by the Andrzej Krzanowski State Music School Complex in Mława.

In the final concert, young singers, talented vocal artists from different parts of Poland, will perform with the symphony orchestra of the Warmia and Mazury Philharmonic under the direction of Piotr Sułkowski. Who and what songs will we hear? – the Jury will decide. The competition repertoire includes compositions by Stanisław Moniuszko, Gaetano Donizetti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet, Piotr Czajkowski and Feliks Nowowiejski.

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

International Classical Music Awards Gala at NOSPR

This year's International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) gala concert will take place on 6 April 2018 at the Katowice headquarters of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The International Classical Music Awards, awarded since 2010, are the successor to the MIDEM Classical Awards. The ICMA jury consists of music critics from 14 countries, representing 17 different music magazines – both printed and electronic – as well as radio stations: Andante (Turkey), Crescendo (Belgium), Das Orchester (Germany), Gramofon (Hungary), HRT Hrvatska Radiotelevizija (Croatia), IMZ (Austria), Muzykalnaja Żizń (Russia), MDR-Figaro (Germany), Musica (Italy), Musik & Theater (Switzerland), Orpheus Radio (Russia), Opera (United Kingdom), Pizzicato (Luxembourg), Radio 100.7 (Luxembourg), ResMusica (France), Rondo Classic (Finland) and Scherzo (Spain).

"We are proud and happy that our partner is one of the best Polish orchestras, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice," said ICMA president Remy Frank. "This ensemble is very well known to us because in the past it has been awarded several times by the ICMA jury."

This event will bring together outstanding winners of prizes and representatives of the international music industry in the prestigious Polish concert hall – the NOSPR headquarters.

During the gala concert, winners of this year's edition of ICMA Awards, conductors: Alexander Liebreich and Manfred Honeck, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, renowned soloists: Szymon Nehring (piano), Christoph Sietzen (drums), Yu Yuan (flute), Stefan Temmingh (long-drawn flute) and the wonderful Belcea Quartet will perform. The programme of the concert includes Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Witold Lutosławski, and Concert Overture op. 12 by Karol Szymanowski.

Information about tickets at: www.nospr.org.pl

Warsaw | The Year 1945 – the music of Weinberg and Laks in the Sinfonia Varsovia Chamber Music Series

In the fourth Sinfonia Varsovia Chamber Music Series concert, which will take place on 4 April 2018, we will hear string quartets by Mieczysław Weinberg and Szymon Laks. Both works were written in 1945 and both provide a remarkable account of the experience and emotions of their creators, who have gone through so much in the early years of the 20th century.

The last concert of the spring edition of the Sinfonia Varsovia Chamber Music Series will consist of two exceptional string quartets written in the year in which World War II came to an end. Three Sinfonia Varsovia musicians: Stanisław Podemski and Agnieszka Guz – violins, Małgorzata Szczepańska – viola and Sinfonia Varsovia Academy participant, cellist Zofia Ziemkiewicz will perform Mieczysław Weinberg’s String Quartet No. 5 Op. 27 and Szymon Laks’ String Quartet No. 3.

Even though both composers were born and brought up in Warsaw, they also both left Poland at an early age. Szymon Laks established his ties with Paris in the late 1920’s, studying composition with Paul Vidal. He came back to Poland during World War II in rather drastic circumstances – as a prisoner of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. He was then transferred to the German concentration camp in Dachau and was eventually liberated by the American army. After the war he came back to settle in Paris permanently. Apart from composition, Laks also started to write books about life in the concentration camp. Laks’ String Quartet No. 3 is based largely on Polish folk melodies. Some themes, such as the song about a hungry soldier could be an expression of the composer’s experience in the concentration camps. However, rather than a reflection of the terrors of war, the Quartet resonates with a joy of life and amazement at the vital power of folk music.

Perhaps Mieczysław Weinberg’s wartime experience isn’t as severe, but nevertheless the dire aura of those times made a strong impression on his music. When the war broke out in September 1939, the composer made his escape from Poland to settle permanently in the Soviet Union. String Quartet No. 5 Op. 27 was composed when Weinberg was making a living in Moscow, writing music for the circus and the theatre, keeping serious works of chamber and orchestral music for his own creative needs. “I believe it is my moral duty to write about the war, about the terrible fate this century brought down on human beings.” said Mieczysław Weinberg, who lost many loved ones in concentration camps. Even though Weinberg’s output is exceptionally extensive (including 22 symphonies, 18 concertos for solo instruments and 17 string quartets), music composed by him in the 1940’s and 1950’s met with criticism of sprading “Jewish bourgeois nationalism”, “formalism” and other crimes against the socialist realism doctrine. If not for his friendship with the influential Dmitri Shostakovich, Weinberg would probably not have lived until the 1990’s, when his name started to arouse interest beyond the borders of Russia.

Admission to all Sinfonia Varsovia Chamber Music Series concerts is free.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

For detailed dates and concert programmes please visit: www.sinfoniavarsovia.org

Easter 2018

Nowy Sącz | 1st International Organ Duo Competition

The Sokół Malopolska Culture Center in Nowy Sącz, as part of the "Sądecka Organ Academy" project, organizes the 1st International Organ Duos Competition "Per organo a quattro mani", which will take place on 15-21 April 2018.

14 duos have applied for the competition, in which organists from Poland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia and Germany will present themselves. We will have the opportunity to listen to their interpretation of church and secular works and watch their performance techniques. The compulsory program of the competition includes, among others, the work of Juliusz Zarębski A travers Pologne op. 23.

The musicians will have at their disposal 51-voice concert organ located in the Lucjan Lipińskiego Hall at the MCK Sokół and organ in the nearby St. Casimir Church. Both instruments offer the performer an impressive color spectrum and a wide dynamic range. Thanks to the completion of the long-planned modernization of the organ in the representative hall of the Sokół Małopolska Culture Center, the city gained a very interesting, large concert instrument with a rich sound palette.

Organized for the first time, the International Organ Duo Competition "Per organo a quattro mani" is an exceptional undertaking, because it draws the attention of organists and music lovers to a comparatively rarely performed repertoire, which is not only an attractive concert literature, but also has an important educational value. Chamber music itself stimulates the development of musical imagination and inspires different interpretations of ideas. Playing together on one instrument is an irreplaceable lesson in ergonomics, showing the performers those technique issues that, once corrected, bring them great advantage as soloists.

Admission free to all the festival events.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: http://www.aquattromani.pl/

Warsaw | "Górecki Ahead": Oleś Brothers & Christopher Dell Promotional Concert

On 5 April 2018 Polish Radio Programme 2 invites you to a promotional concert of the Górecki Ahead album, which will take place at the Polish Radio's S2 Studio (59 Jacka Kaczmarskiego St., Warsaw) at 8.00 p.m.

Górecki Ahead music album is an attempt to read the legacy of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki in a new way and show it in a different light than before. This record also proves how vital and inspiring is Górecki's music today, especially if its interpretations are undertaken by artists whose instrumental skills go hand in hand with creativity, imagination and the need to create an original artistic expression.

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki is one of the greatest and most famous 20th-century composers. He owes his unusual popularity to the Symphony composed in 1976. Paradoxically, despite achieving success on a global scale, the composer's entire output remains virtually unknown to a wider audience.

The brothers Marcin Oleś (double bass player) and Bartłomiej Oleś (drummer), along with jazz vibraphonist Christopher Dell, are continuing the cooperation started in 2011. They reached for the composer's pieces by filtering them through the sum of their own rich experiences. For their part, they brought sensitivity of musicians who deal with jazz and improvisation on a daily basis. Górecki Ahead is not the next of many albums filled with classical music rearranged to jazz fashion. In the interpretation of the trio, sometimes significantly different from the original, a delicate balance between the fidelity of the composer's musical concept and the associated freedom of expression reveals itself in a balanced, intelligent and finesse manner.

Tickets are available at: www.sklep.polskieradio.pl and at the venue before the concert.

Warsaw | Polish Piano Quintet

The Warsaw Branch of the Association of Polish Artists Musicians invites you on 2 April 2018 at 4.00 p.m. to the Museum in Nieborów and Arkadia for the premiere of Polish Piano Quintet by Weronika Ratusińska-Zamuszko.

Continuing the tradition of classical works inspired by Polish culture (such as the works of Juliusz Zarębski, Karol Szymanowski, Grażyna Bacewicz and other great Polish composers), Weronika Ratusińska reinterprets the rhythm of Polish folk dances in her Polish piano quintet. The intimate character of ther piece enables to concentrate on the color of solo instruments, as well as their mutual interaction and textural game. The quintet consists of three parts. The first one has a rondo form with rhythmically active choruses and variable couplets of a more static nature; the second part is a slow one, maintained in the ABA form; the third part is a playful scherzo. In terms of aesthetics and stylistics, the composition refers to the achievements of repetitive music as well as neoclassicism and neotonality.

Nostadema String Quartet along with pianist Wojciech Świętoński will present string quintets by Paweł Łukaszewski and Bartosz Kowalski and will premiere the mentioned piano quintet by Weronika Ratusińka-Zamuszko.

The composition was commisioned by the Warsaw Branch of the Association of Polish Artists Musicians as part of the "Collections" program – the priority of "Composition Commissions", implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance.

Admission to the concert is free.

The program will also be presented on 6 Aprli at 7.30 p.m. in the MOK hall in Legionowo and on 8 April at 5.00 p.m. in the concert hall of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.

Easter with Chopin at TVP Kultura

On Easter Sunday, 1 April 2018, TVP Kultura invites you to a unique meeting with the works of Fryderyk Chopin. Two documentaries dedicated to the great Polish composer, Ocaleni przez Chopina and Fortepian Chopina, will be shown that day along with the concert Warszawski fortepian Chopina.

Ocaleni przez Chopina (Chopin Saved My Life), a British documentary directed by James Kent, will be broadcast at 9.05 a.m. It tells a story of Fryderyk Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor and it's influence on the lives of two young people. The 15-year-old Japanese pianist Momoka comes from Sendai – a city that in 2011 suffered from a terrible earthquake and tsunami. Playing Ballad, Momoka gives expression to her usually hidden feelings like pain, despair and disagreement with cruel reality. 22-year-old Paul, a Scottish music school student who was diagnosed with brain cancer and multiple sclerosis, owes Ballad his recovery after a difficult operation. In the movie, the works of Chopin are also commented on by world-renown pianists such as Lang Lang, Vladimir Aszkenazy, Imogen Cooper and Stephen Cough.

At 1.40 p.m. TVP Kultura will show a documentary by Piotr Stasik, Fortepian Chopina (Chopin's piano). It will explain how a copy of Buchholtz's piano, on which teenage Chopin composed his first great works, was built. It is primarily a movie about true passion and love of his work by the creator of a copy of the instrument, Paul McNulty – one of the best builders of historical grand pianos in the world.

How this instrument sounds, the audience will find out at 2.00 p.m. by watching the gala concert Warszawski fortepian Chopina (Chopin's Warsaw piano). The event took place on 17 March 2018 at the Grand Theater – National Opera, on the 188th anniversary of Chopin's famous concert at the National Theater on Krasiński Square. On 17 March 1830 young Chopin performed for the first time his Piano Concerto in F minor on the Buchholtz piano. This year, Krzysztof Książek played on the restored instrument with the accompaniment of Collegium 1704 under the baton of Václav Luks. The artists performed Fugue et coda in B flat major (on the theme "Poland is Not Yet Lost") and the Battle of Możajsk by Karol Kurpiński, along with the Piano Concerto in F minor by Fryderyk Chopin.

"Cosi fan tutte" live from New York on 31 March

The Metropolitan Opera will broadcast to cinemas around the world a new staging of the Mozart's Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti. On 31 March 2018 at 6.35 p.m. the Praha Cinema will show the live tranmission of this comic opera from the director's perspective.

Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the best stage works of the Viennese classic, and at the same time the apotheosis of the comic opera. The only problem is that the ending of Così fan tutte is not the funniest one: it reveals a certain significant weakness of the main characters – betrayal. Two friends, Ferrando and Guglielmo (in these roles Ben Bliss and Adam Plachetka) decides to test their beloved ones. They tell their fiancées they are leaving for war, and then return dressed as Albanian soldiers, ready to do anything to seduce the lonely fiancées. Mr. Fiordiligi and Dorabella (in these roles Amanda Majeski and Serena Malfi), after a short resistance, allow themselves to be seduced, because – apparently – they all do that.

Mozart's comedy in the direction of Phelim McDermott will take place in the setting of the funfair at Coney Island, a revue theater and a small motel from the 1950s. David Robertson will conduct the orchestra. Fire-eaters, a woman with a beard and snake charmers will also appear on stage.

The presentation in the language of the original (Italian) with Polish subtitles takes about 3 hours and 45 minutes (including 1 break).

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Additional information at: www.kinopraha.pl