Brahms | Schumann

03 March 2018, 7.00 p.m.
Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio in Warsaw

1500 recitals and symphonic concerts, both hemispheres, all European countries, the United States, North and South America, Japan and Australia, the best halls, the most prominent orchestras and conductors, dozens of award-winning albums, hundreds of radio and television recordings… This sums up Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, for more than half a century (debut in 1966), the “first violin of the Republic of Poland”. An extremely versatile artist, highly regarded soloist and chamber musician, pedagogue, as well as an explorer and promoter of a forgotten repertoire, will perform on the 3rd of March along with Tomasz Strahl, a generation-younger cellist enjoying a similarly impressive reputation and successes. Both great artists will present Johannes Brahms’ Double Concerto in A minor for violin, cello and orchestra. Many concerts were written for such a cast (starting with Vivaldi to artists of the 20th century), but this one remains the best-known and most frequently performed. Not without reason – it is a masterpiece, the last concerto (and last symphonic work) by the artist, combining exuberant expression, pathos and nostalgia. It was the composer’s gesture of reconciliation with his friend, Joseph Joachim, with whom he quarrelled years before. The great violinist accepted it (with a laconic dedication on the manuscript: “for the one for whom it was intended”).
What does this work share with the person of Robert Schumann, the second protagonist of the concert? The mysterious acronym F-A-E, the motto of young Joachim coded in notes: “frei, aber einsam” (“free, but lonely”). Based on these notes developed into musical motifs, three friends – young Brahms, Albert Dietrich, today forgotten, and their mentor, Schumann – composed a sonata (together!) 34 years earlier, dedicated to Joachim, whom they admired, at the beginning of his brilliant career. In his concert, Brahms reverses the motto, building motifs on the sounds A-F-E, which must have been a clear, touching memory of his youthful years and their master patron for the violinist. The numbering of Schumann’s Symphony no. 4 in D minor, full of romantic exaltations, indicates that it is the last of his four works. In fact, it was the second work, created by a mere 20-year-old, as a birthday present for his equally young wife, Clara. However, it was substantially reworked 10 years later and issued as No. 4. The concert will be led by Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk, artistic director of the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra.

Performers:
Konstanty Andrzej Kulka | violin
Tomasz Strahl | cello
Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra
Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk | conductor

Programme:
Johannes Brahms  Double Concerto in A minor for violin and cello, Op. 102,
Robert Schumann Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120

We invite you!

Media patronage: Polskie Radio Program 2, Presto, Art Post, Twoja Muza, 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.