Symphony concert – Schumann | Strauss

“(…) and how they played! Enough to make the air vibrate in the hall of the Krakow Philharmonic. What contributed to the thrill was probably the concert programme and particularly Richard Strauss’s tone poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The first two minutes of the piece – best-known, made famous by Stanley Kubrick who used the excerpt in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey – gave me shivers. The young play better – this was the though I had when leaving the concert. They believe that they can do everything, that they can change the world. They are able to lose themselves in music, pass on their passion, carry away and convince even those most unconvinced ones. There is so much power in them that they can be forgiven certain intonational flaws (trumpets in Strauss). Small errors become irrelevant when the sincerity of expression is simply captivating. This is the music one wants to listen to. This is the performance one would miss.

The Warsaw-based Sinfonia Iuventus is an exceptional ensemble. The orchestra was founded in 2007 on the initiative of Jerzy Semkow. It aims at gathering the most talented graduates from academies of music and providing them with an opportunity to work with the best conductors and soloists. Musicians must not be older than 30, therefore when the orchestra members reach this age they have to leave and make room for the next to come. This may be cruel, however the main objective of Sinfonia Iuventus is to create an ensemble of top artistic quality and thus educate outstanding orchestra members. They have already played over 300 concerts (also abroad), they have recorded CDs. And the truth is that they have always fascinated and enchanted the listeners.”

Source: Radio Kraków

Author: Agnieszka Malatyńska-Stankiewicz.

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