x

The last of this season’s educational concerts in the series “Nowa Miodowa – Sinfonia Iuventus”, inaugurated in October 2021, will again feature virtuosos who are very young, but who already have a significant competition record, concert experience, and above all, an extraordinary range of their talents.

The spectacular 1900 symphonic scherzo Stańczyk by Ludomir Różycki that opens the concert refers to the famous painting by Matejko and the history of the jester of Polish kings (the motif of Cracovienne is introduced here into the Krakow milieu).

Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (1800), his only one in the key of C minor, is an expression of his search for new, individual expression, opening with the new century a new chapter in the work of the last of the classics. It is the expressive layer determined by the choice of tonality, full of passionate pathos and “pre-romantic”, that is the most characteristic feature of this masterpiece, but also on the formal level we find many important innovations. The relationship between soloist and orchestra also changes here – to a more collaborative one. The final rondo takes up the heroic tone of the first movement and gradually softens it, leading through numerous contrasting episodes towards a major coda.

Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor, full of romantic rapture and impressive virtuosity, since its premiere became part of the “canon” of literature for this instrument, but it might never have been written, because the composer had long been reserved towards the cello, considering it an instrument suitable mainly for orchestral playing. He finally gave in to the long-standing persuasions of the virtuoso Hanuš Wihan and in 1895 completed his masterpiece (the public premiere in London was eventually attended not by Wihan, but by Leo Stern).

The success of the famous Ebony concerto, which Igor Stravinsky composed for the clarinet and saxophone virtuoso Woody Herman, inspired his rival Benny Goodman, who soon afterwards (1949) commissioned a concerto for himself from the American composer Aaron Copland. This work too – albeit in different ways – combines the worlds of classical and jazz. The unconventional structure includes two sections linked with attacca by a virtuosic clarinet cadence. The first one is marked, as the author himself said, by “bittersweet lyricism”, the second one exposes motives of Latin American music (the piece was created during Copland’s stay in Rio de Janeiro) and jazz.

The concert will be conducted by Anna Sułkowska-Migoń, who cooperates with our Orchestra within the “Conductor-in-Residence” programme of the National Institute of Music and Dance. The artist is continuing her Master studies in symphonic conducting at the Music Academy of Krakow in Łukasz Borowicz’s class. She is a Taki Alsop Fellowship Award Recipient. As a choirmistress, she was a Noël Minet Fund Scholarship recipient and a finalist of the International Choirmaster Competition in Parma. In 2022, she won the conducting competition for women “La Maestra 2022” organized by Philharmonie de Paris and Paris Mozart Orchestra. She conducts for the Ars Cameralis choir in Krakow and is an assistant with the Boys’ Choir of the Krakow Philharmonic. Sułkowska-Migoń collaborated with many conductors and Polish orchestras and participated in numerous master courses.

Concert is co-organized by the National Institute of Music and Dance within the framework of its own program „Conductor – resident” financed from the funds of Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

Free tickets available at the School Office from May 30, 2022