Concert of the Winners of the 10th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors and the Young Musician of the Year competition

27.10.2018, 7 p.m.
Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio in Warsaw

Modestas Barkauskas is one of the most talented and recognizable Lithuanian conductors of the young generation; he is a pupil of one of the most eminent Lithuanian bandmasters, Juozas Domarkas (he led a Sinfonia Iuventus concert in Warsaw on the 7th of April 2018). Since 2008, he has been the artistic director of the youth orchestra at the B. Dvarionas School of Music in Vilnius, and has performed concerts with the orchestra in Germany, Belgium, France, Poland and Latvia. He also became artistic director and conductor of the St Christopher Chamber Orchestra in Vilnius, lectures at the Faculties of Conducting and Singing of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2017, he won third prize in the 10th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Katowice, and the October performance with the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra is the realisation of one of the competition awards, which honour its winners in this way.
In its ideological plan (“per aspera ad astra” – “through hardship to the stars”), Pyotr Tchaikowsky’s Symphony No. 5 is sometimes compared to Beethoven’s famous symphony of the same number – here, however, the emotional range between the tragism of the beginning and the triumph of the finale is even more significant. A certain analogy can also be seen in the derivation of the whole work from a single, specific motif (sometimes referred to, as in Beethoven’s case, as the “fate motif”): a gloomy melody, recurring in various contexts, played in a low register by the clarinet at the beginning of the work. The Symphony in E minor is also a “model” work, one that can be summoned as the most characteristic for the style of its creator (and the generally neo-Romantic idiom of Russian music), and since its premiere, it has enjoyed unwavering popularity.
Jan Václav Stamic, a Czech, was a composer and bandmaster of one of the greatest orchestras in 18th century Europe, active at the electorate court in Mannheim, where his son, known under German name Carl Stamitz, began his career. He left Mannheim quite early, but he remained faithful to the classical style he had learned there, with a clear predisposition to brilliance and virtuosity, particularly evident in his solo concertos, which are still very popular today. They also include the charming Flute Concerto in G major, which will be performed by Marta Chlebicka, a pupil of the Z. Brzewski Secondary School of Music in Warsaw and the winner of the prestigious Young Musician of the Year competition (2018), which selects the Polish participant in the Eurovision Young Musicians competition (this year’s edition took place in Edinburgh in August). The style of Stamitz’s music is often compared with the clarity and charm of Mozart’s youthful works (the latter owed much to the achievements of the “Mannheim School”), which is why one of his last masterpieces, the brilliant overture to the Magic Flute, will be the perfect complement of the programme.

Performers:
Marta Chlebicka | flute
Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra
Modestas Barkauskas | conductor

Programme:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The Magic Flute K. 620: Overture
Carl Stamitz Concerto in G major for Flute and Orchestra op. 29
Pyotr Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 op. 64

Media patronage: Presto, Art Post, polmic.pl

Tickets available at bilety24eBilet and sklep.polskieradio.pl, as well as in the box office of W. Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio one hour before the concert.