Stefan Plewniak – fot. Mona Ulriche Schanche

x

The works of the Italian Post-Romantic composer Ottorino Respighi are known rather selectively – his colourful and monumental orchestral cycles of the “Roman Trilogy”, which include Fontane di Roma, Pini di Roma and Feste romane, have always enjoyed great popularity. Equally interesting, but somewhat less frequently mentioned, are so-called “historicising“ compositions for chamber ensembles, referring to Italy’s heritage of rediscovered old masters’ music. The 1927 Trittico botticelliano is an evocation of three famous paintings by Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli from the collection of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. Remarkably original in its conception, it was inspired by Elizabeth Coolidge, an American patroness of artists, and its movements refer to the canvases La Primavera, L’Adorazione dei Magi and La nascita di Venere in an attempt to convey with sound the impressions of the admiring artist. A nod to the painter’s period are subtle stylisations of early music and a quote from the Gregorian Antiphon Veni, veni Emanuel.

Composers of lute and harpsichord music in Baroque France had been creating works called tombeau – often in the type of a stylized allemande or pavane in honour of a deceased personage, not as a “lament“ but rather as a sublime apotheosis. To this period and tradition Maurice Ravel was referring when, during the difficult years of the First World War, he wrote a piano cycle of six miniatures based on the concept of a Baroque Suite: Le Tombeau de Couperin. Each of the movements is dedicated to the memory of one of the composer’s friends killed in the war ( in fact, he himself joined the army, dreaming of a career as a pilot – due to poor health, he did not take part in the fighting, but was, among other things, a driver of frontline supply trucks). Like the former tombeaux, this piece is also characterised by a cheerful, sometimes melancholic affirmation rather than despair – being asked about it, the author replied that “the dead are sad enough in their eternal silence“. In 1919 Ravel orchestrated the work, in a version reduced to four movements.

Max Richter, a contemporary German composer working mainly in the UK, is a versatile artist, creatively referring to many currents and styles of modern music, is often described as a “postminimalist“. His vividly expressive, interestingly stylised music is often featured in films and TV series (e.g. My Brilliant Friend based on the prose of Elena Ferrante), either composed specially for them or borrowed from concert works. The composition Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed at the time of its CD premiere in 2012 (the work was later presented in concert) aroused great interest and is now one of the frequently performed pieces. The composer reached for the most famous programme cycle of four concertos by the Italian Baroque master and presented it in a completely new light, using well-known motifs (according to Richter, his version contains approximately one quarter of Vivaldi’s original material) transformed and set in new contexts.

The conductor but also the violin soloist at the concert crowning the fruitful season of the Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra will be Stefan Plewniak, a versatile artist known as an outstanding baroque and contemporary violinist, conductor and music producer. He is founder and artistic director of the orchestra Il Giardino d’Amore, the ensemble Cappella dell’Ospedale della Pietà Venezia and The FeelHarmony Symphony Orchestra, and also the founder of record company Ëvoe Records. He is the first conductor at L’Orchestre de l’Opera Royale in Versailles, and was music director at the Warsaw Chamber Opera. The producer of many unforgettable concert and opera creations, highly valued recordings, he has also performed as a guest conductor with the Cracow and Lodz Philharmonics and many other ensembles in Poland and abroad. He is also active as a teacher at the NOR59 String Institute in Oslo.

Standard price of the tickets: 40 zł/1 seat
Reduced price of the tickets: 30 zł/ 1 seat
for:
• students, students before 26, pensioners and the persons after 70,
• students of the schools of music and ballet as well as the students of the universities of music and musicology departments

Tickets: Polskie Radio – Bilety24, eBilet as well as the ticket box of Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio

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