STRAUSS | BRUCH | BEETHOVEN

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20 May 2023, 7 p.m.
Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of the Polish Radio in Warsaw

Performers
Jean-François Bescond | clarinet
Katarzyna Budnik | viola
Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra
Jan Jakub Bokun | conductor

Programme
Richard Strauss – Serenade for Winds op. 7, E-falt major
Max Bruch – Double Concerto for Clarinet and Viola op. 88, e minor
pause
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No.6, op. 68, F major, „Pastorale”

Jan Jakub Bokun – photo Artist’s archive; Jean-François Bescond – photo Artist’s archive; Katarzyna Budnik – photo Bartłomiej Kusiak

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From many accounts on Beethoven, including his letters, we know that he loved nature and devoted much of his time to wandering among the forests and fields of Vienna. The first sketches for the “characteristic symphony”, which was to be a tribute to nature and idyllic life in its surroundings, were written around 1803. The oeuvre was completed in 1808 and presented at a (very long and, according to critics, unsuccessful) concert on the 22nd of December, 1808. The “Pastoral” Symphony is sometimes referred to as an embodiment of programme music, even though it is not actually of a narrative nature – rather, it simply recalls a memory of feelings of engaging with the beauty of nature. Onomatopoeic effects such as the sounds of the stream, the birdsong, the storm, ribald motifs of the folk dance, the steps of the wanderer, come to signify clear symbols of the underlying message of the work. The choice of key is also interesting: F major (close to the old Lydian scale) has often been the musical “sign” of pastoral, plebeian motifs. It is the only one of Beethoven’s symphonies to have five, instead of the usual four, movements.

Max Bruch is a somewhat forgotten composer today, although he was held in high esteem during his long and prolific life, remaining true to the Romantic tradition in an age of momentous innovations. He composed – to cite one commentator – “as Mendelssohn would have composed, had he lived longer”. His works (the First Violin Concerto remains the most widely known) inspire admiration with their perfection, the logic of their structure and melodic beauty – these qualities can also be found in the Concerto for clarinet, viola and orchestra in E-minor, Op. 88 (the composer himself acknowledged the possibility of performing the clarinet part on the violin), a work by a 73-year-old composer, completed in 1911. One of the contemporary discoverers and propagators of this beautiful, forgotten piece is the French clarinettist Jean-François Bescond, who is going to present it at the concert. He is one of the most highly-regarded virtuosi of his generation, active as a soloist, chamber musician and university instructor, with an impressive concert and recording portfolio. He will be accompanied by Katarzyna Budnik, one of the most renowned, award-winning Polish viola players, a member of the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra since 2014 and leader of its viola group, also a highly acclaimed chamber musician.

Richard Strauss was only seventeen when, in 1881, he composed Serenade in E-flat major, Op. 7 for 13 wind instruments (and this was not his first notable piece!). Probably influenced by his admiration for his horn virtuoso father, the young genius envisioned the parts of a “chorus” of four horns complemented by the sound of the woodwinds and the tuba (or the double bass). The serenade was premiered with great success in Dresden on the 27th of November, 1882. The one-movement work in sonata form is a splendid tribute to the legacy of the Classics, especially Mozart, but at the same time heralds many elements of the mature style of its creator, renowned for his great sensitivity to instrumental timbres.

Jan Jakub Bokun, who is going to lead the concert, is a Wroclaw-based clarinettist and conductor, president of the Polish branch of the International Clarinet Association, initiator and artistic director of the Clarimania festival, founder and conductor of the Inter>CAMERATA chamber orchestra. He studied clarinet at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław (of which he is a professor) and in Paris with Professor Guy Dangain. He completed conducting studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Winner of numerous competitions, awards and prizes. As a clarinettist and a conductor, he recorded 15 albums.

 

Tickets: Polskie Radio – Bilety24eBilet as well as the ticket box of Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio

Standard price of the tickets: 45 zł/1 seat
Reduced price of the tickets: 35 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

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 KulturaPrestopolmic.pl