22 June 2019, 7:00 p.m.
Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of the Polish Radio

With:
Tomasz Strahl | cello
Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra
Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk | conductor

Programme:
Roman Statkowski – Overture to the Opera “Maria”
Stanisław Moryto – Concerto for cello and string orchestra
intermission
Antoni Szałowski – Overture for orchestra
Piotr Moss – Cello Concerto No. 2 “Prières”

Sinfonia Iuventus celebrates 100th anniversary of regaining independence by Poland by presenting chosen positions from the Polish music of XX and XXI century.

Tomasz Strahl, an outstanding cellist will perform during the concert. This highly appreciated soloist, chamber musician and academic teacher has won many prestigious awards and distinctions and is one of the most esteemed cellists of his generation. The two cello concertos featured in the programme are the perfect way to show off the versatility of this artist’s talent in a single evening.

The work by Stanisław Moryta from 1992 is saturated with dramatic, elegiac expression, as expressed in the character of each movement: Drammatico / Lugubre / Aggresivo; it also displays cello virtuosity. Cello Concerto No. 2 by Piotr Moss titled Prières (Payers) was composed in 2003 and premiered in Poland, performed by Tomasz Strahl of the NPRSO in 2005. A review in “Ruch Muzyczny” (Musical Movement) by Ewa Szczecińska says of this piece: “Carnival struggles against fasting in Prières by Moss – that is how I interpret this music. Dramatic, multi-layered, dense with emotional thoughts and states, stylistically located somewhere between Shostakovich, Lutosławski and Kancheli. An important Polish cello concerto”. This way Sinfonia Iuventus gets involved in the celebration of 70th birthday and 50th anniversary of the composer’s artistic activity.

The programme is supplemented by two overtures – the first opened the now forgotten opera Maria by Roman Statkowski (1904), acknowledge when it premiered to be one of the best Polish works of its kind since the days of Moniuszko. The orchestral intro features impressive symphonic panache and a dramatic motif transporting listeners into events taking place in the Borderlands in the seventeenth century. The interwar period will be represented in the programme by the Overture for orchestra by Antoni Szałowski, one of the many Polish students of the famous Nadia Boulanger (interestingly, two generations before the young Piotr Moss also studied with her near the end of her long career), in tribute to neoclassical style – which is also present in this brilliant piece.

Polski wieczór poprowadzi dyrygent o międzynarodowej renomie, Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk, dyrektor artystyczny (od 1998) Filharmonii Śląskiej oraz dyrektor artystyczny i juror Międzynarodowych Konkursów Dyrygentów im. Grzegorza Fitelberga w Katowicach. Od lat związany z POSI, był jej dyrektorem artystycznym, obecnie zaś jest członkiem Rady Artystycznej i koordynatorem ds. artystycznych.

This evening of Polish music will be conducted by Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk, the artistic director of Silesian Philcarmonic (since 1998), the artistic director and a jury of The Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors, who is related to Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra as a memeber of its Artistic Council. [Piotr Maculewicz]

Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the multi-annual programme NIEPODLEGŁA 2017-2021.

Tickets available:
https://bit.ly/2Hna1mE
https://bit.ly/2HpN8z5