Mateusz Smoczyński- photo  Z. Zija i P. Pióro; Piotr Baron – photo M. Adamczewska; Victoria Zhadko – photo Artist’s archive; Marek Wroniszewski – photo P. Banasik

x

Mateusz Smoczyński is a leading contemporary jazz violinist counted among the most interesting musical personalities of his generation. This winner of several prestigious awards has performed on major jazz stages and festivals worldwide and cooperated with the most eminent jazz stars. With several dozen albums on his account, for several years now Smoczyński has been the leader of a quintet, he is also the founder of New Trio and co-founder of the fascinating Atom String Quartet – the first Polish string quartet playing jazz. His debut album, Fade In, received Fryderyk Award in the “Jazz Phonographic Debut of the Year” category. His next album, Places, has also earned him the Fryderyk – this time in the “Jazz Album of the Year” category. Other well-received recordings followed. In 2016, Mateusz Smoczynski formed a duo with the famous cellist Stephan Braun.

Smoczyński wrote Adam’s Apple violin concerto, which premiered in November 2018 with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.  This composition is definitely closer to contemporary classical music pieces than to jazz, although it does leave room for the performer to improvise. Writing with himself as a performer in mind, Smoczynski was able to make full use of his own skills and experience gained while performing various musical genres. Therefore, this composition features original performance techniques absent from other violin concertos. One of the movements is played on a very rarely used baritone violin with a pastel sound and a scale similar to that of a cello. The title of the piece alludes to the author’s fascination with John Adams’ music, labelled as the American “maximalist minimalist”.

2PiX is another symphonic work by Mateusz Smoczyński – a double concerto for tenor saxophone and violin, which was written on the initiative of the outstanding saxophonist Piotr Baron, director of the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra. It was composed during the pandemic – the author, after several years, found time to re-watch David Lynch’s Twin Peaks series. Although it does not directly refer to Angelo Badalamenti’s music accompanying this cult series, it was inspired by its content. Lynch’s series is full of symbolism and especially accentuates the Manichaean dualism of good and evil. On musical grounds, it was expressed by applying two contrasting instruments: the noble and euphonious violin and the belligerent and sinister tenor saxophone. The beginning of the concert is an invitation to enter this somewhat dreamy and surreal, seemingly harmonious world. Over time, however, the music becomes increasingly ominous: the idyll turns into a nightmare. The second part tells the story of Laura Palmer – symbolised by an emotional, romantic and disturbing love melody played on the violin, while the final motifs are a poignant musical image of her murder. The last movement, vigorous and full of and unexpected turns, contains a fugue symbolising the multi-threaded and complicated plot. Filled with anxiety and contrast, flashbacks and allusions, the music corresponds with the surreal world created in Lynch’s fascinating imagination. The title of the piece is the phonetic equivalent of “Twin Peaks” – this title could not be used as it is a proprietary name.

This meeting of two great individualities of the jazz scene and its classical borderland promises to be extremely interesting! Jazz saxophonist Piotr Baron, leader of numerous bands and a musician cooperating with the most eminent jazz artists in Poland and abroad. His rich artistic output contains also numerous projects combining the spheres of jazz and classical music, including participation in Cezary Duchnowski’s Monday series, Jacek Niedziela-Meira’s symphonic poem Scenes from Macondo and Krzysztof Herdzin’s suite Looking for Balance, as well as experience as a composer. The event will be hosted by Marek Wroniszewski and Victoria Zhadko. [pmac]

During the event the rules determined in the Ordinance of the Council of Ministers related to the establishment of the certain limitations, injunctions and bans due to the conditions of epidemic will be in force as well as their update: Current rules and restrictions.

Organiser: Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra
The organiser reserves the right to change the programme or the performers of the concert

Media patronage: TVP Kultura, Presto, polmic.pl

Tickets: Polskie Radio – bilety24, eBilet  and in the box office of the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio