UNESCO patronage over the world premiere of ‘Moses’.

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UNESCO patronage is among the most prestigious distinctions for cultural events in the entire world. It can be pursued by promoters of international projects which represent top artistic and substantive quality. Organisers, in turn, must prove material output in their field and a long-time activity. All of these conditions are met by the Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus. It is great pride and satisfaction to announce that we have received the UNESCO patronage for our unique project – a contemporary world premiere of Anton Rubinstein’s forgotten opera Moses (1829-1894). Together with his brother Nikolai, Anton belonged to the most prominent figures on the Russian and international music scene in the 19th c. The acclaimed pianist, conductor and teacher (among other activities, he founded the conservatoire in Saint Petersburg, where one of his students was P. Tchaikovsky) was also a prolific and highly popular composer. His output included 20 operas, yet this field of his creative activity was soon unjustly forgotten and only few pieces can be still found in repertoires. Of particular interest is Rubinstein’s cycle of biblical operas, which take up motifs from the Old and New Testament. They are Christus, Sulamith, The Tower of Babel and Moses. The last work, written between 1885 and 1891 to the libretto by Heinrich Mosenthal, tells in eight suggestive images the whole history of the prophet (previously it was presented on stage by G. Rossini, later – by A. Schönberg; he also was the hero of many oratorios), using an enormously wide range of voices (as many as 20 solo parts, choir, grand orchestra). Composed in an expressive, neo-Romantic style, it consists of many wonderful arias, but particularly – dazzling crowd scenes illustrating the famous, dramatic episodes described in the biblical Pentateuch. The concert version of the opera, featuring magnificent soloists (including Stanislav Kuflyuk, Chen Reiss, Małgorzata Walewska), will resound under the baton of Maestro Michail Jurowski in the Warsaw Philharmonic on 15 October 2017. The performance will be also registered.