BEETHOVEN OUR CONTEMPORARY. IN A SPRING MOOD. INTERNET CONCERT

Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major by Ludwig van Beethoven will be played at the next Internet Concert on Friday, the 23rd of April at 7 pm, with the German pianist Martin Stadtfeld at the piano and the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Łukasz Borowicz.

Piano Concerto No. 4 had its premiere during a private concert in the palace of Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowitz, in March 1807. A wide audience listened to it on the 22nd of December 1808 in Theater an der Wien at the composer evening of the Master from Bonn. Unfortunately after that event it had been… forgotten for many years (until Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy presented it to the world once again in 1836). That is hardly surprising, as on the December evening in Vienna, besides the Concerto, also two Symphonies (Nos. 5 and 6), Choral Fantasy in C minor, extracts from the Mass in C major, Op. 86, piano improvisations and the concert aria “Ah! Perfido – Per pietà” were performed as well. The whole concert was about four hours long!

Piano Concerto No. 4 was written in the years of 1805-1806 and is considered to be the first of Ludwig van Beethoven’s concertos presenting the composer’s unique style. It was untypical at the time it originated: the work starts with a piano part, which is a solo instrument, and not with the orchestra – that didn’t actually happen so far. The Concerto is called “Lark” because of the brilliant musical ornaments which gives the soloist the opportunity to shine. Is there a better concert recommendation for the spring we are all looking forward to?

And for dessert – Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Second from the three sonatas from Opus 2, dedicated to Joseph Haydn by young Beethoven. It was written in 1796, in the early period of the composer’s work.

PERFORMERS:

Martin STADTFELD – piano
Łukasz BOROWICZ – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
  Allegro moderato
  Andante con moto
  Rondo. Vivace
• Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2 (2nd movement – Largo appasionato)

Honorary Patronage

Project co-funded by Polish-German Cooperation Fund

The Last Parisian? – that’s the title of the next Internet Concert, to which we invite you on the 16th of April at 7 pm. The event features the music of Joseph Haydn, the oldest composer of the Viennese School, also known as the father of the new orchestra, and Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra led by Tadeusz Wojciechowski.

During the evening the subsequent of the six Paris Symphonies cycle (Nos. 82-87) by Joseph Haydn will be performed. They were all commissioned by the Paris Music Society, Le Concert de la Loge Olympique, supported by the great patron of the arts Claude-François-Marie Rigoley, Count d’Ogny. They all met with an enthusiastic reception and reinforced the composer’s fame in France and abroad.

Symphony in A Major is marked with No. 87 and according to the current numbering system it is the last of the Haydn’s Paris symphonies. However, as it occurs in the history of music, the opus numbers doesn’t always equate with the time of its origin. Thus Symphony No. 87 was composed in 1785 as the… first, not the last of the Paris cycle.

Musicologists believe, that the Paris Symphonies formed Haydn’s way to symphonic championship. In these symphonies his style is already developed, and the composer discards the pompous and empty theatrical tone, in its simplicity getting closer to the grateful, sometimes naive folk music sound.

PERFORMERS:

Tadeusz WOJCIECHOWSKI – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Joseph Haydn, Symphony in A Major, No. 87
  Vivace
  Adagio
  Menuet
  Finale: Vivace

According to the government’s decision to keep the current epidemiological restrictions to limit the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including the closure of the cultural institutions for the audience until the 18th of April, we would like to inform you that the concerts of the Poznan Philharmonic will be broadcast via Internet till that time. You can find more details about the concerts on our website and Facebook profile.

We invite you for the Internet Concert every Friday at 7 pm.

Friday, 9th of April 2021, 7 pm

TRIBUTE TO THE GENIUS
INTERNET CONCERT

PERFORMERS:

Michał FRANCUZ – piano
Tadeusz WOJCIECHOWSKI – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Igor Stravinsky, “Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments”

***

Friday, 16th of April 2021, 7 pm

THE LAST PARISIAN?
INTERNET CONCERT

PERFORMERS:

Tadeusz WOJCIECHOWSKI – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Joseph Haydn, Symphony in A Major, No. 87

***

Friday, 23rd of April 2021, 7 pm

BEETHOVEN OUR CONTEMPORARY
IN A SPRING MOOD
INTERNET CONCERT

PERFORMERS:

Martin STADTFELD – piano
Łukasz BOROWICZ – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
• Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2 (2nd movement – Largo appasionato) 

Honorary Patronage

Project co-funded by Polish-German Cooperation Fund

This day, the 6th of April, marks the 50th death anniversary of Igor Stravinsky, one of the most ingenious composers of the 20th century. To commemorate the genius Poznan Philharmonic dedicates the next Internet Concert (Friday, 9th of April at 7 pm) to his music. For the first time in Poznan the “Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments” will be [performed, featuring the pianist Michał Francuz and Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra led by Tadeusz Wojciechowski.

Igor Stravinsky began to write the “Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments” in the summer of 1923 and completed it on the 21st of April of the following year. The work waited only a month for its premiere – it was performed for the first time in the Paris Opera on the 22nd of May 1924. The composer himself played the piano part, while Serge Koussevitzky conducted the whole ensemble – he was the one who commissioned the piece for his famous Parisian Concerts Koussevitzky, which he led in the years of 1921-1928 and popularized the works by Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel.

By taking up writing the piece, Stravinsky secured the exclusivity for its performance for five years. In that period he performed the Concerto over 40 times! In 1950 the composer introduced a few changes and amendments to the work and in that version it has been performed the most frequently.

In our today’s commemoration of the unusual composer it is worth mentioning that his father, Fyodor Stravinsky, came from a Polish gentry from the Eastern Borderlands Stravinsky with the Sulima coat of arms. The composer’s great-great-grandfather, Stanislaus Stravinsky, went down in history during the Bar Confederation when on the 3rd of November 1771 he took part in the kidnapping of the King Stanisław August Poniatowski.

Rumour has it that Igor Stravinsky had taken steps to apply for the Polish citizenship, the reason being not the blood relation but the property of his first wife, located in Poland. According to one of the story versions the artist gave up due to the long queue before the Polish Consulate in Paris, according to the other one – he was discouraged by the behaviour of the official, who treated Stravinsky as one of those “nagging” Russian emigrants seeking asylum in Western Europe after the Revolution.

PERFORMERS:

Michał FRANCUZ – piano
Tadeusz WOJCIECHOWSKI – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Igor Stravinsky, Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
  Largo – Allegro – Più mosso – Maestoso
  Largo
  Allegro

We would like to inform you that the box office will be closed from the 20th of March to the 9th of April.

Two operas: Sāvitri by Gustav Holst and Sancta Susanna by Paul Hindemith – will fill one of the evenings of the 25th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival. They will be performed on the 26th of March at 7.30 pm in AMU Concert Hall in Poznan, in the festival cycle Unknown Operas by Well-Known Composers, in their concert versions. One can listen to the broadcast aired on Polish Radio Program 2 and online on the Polish Radio Youtube channel.

Gustav Holst’s Sāvitri was born of the composer’s fascination with the Eastern culture. The plot talks of a legendary pair of lovers: Sāvitri and Satyavāna, and the immense force of their love which defeated death. The tale comes from one of the Mahabharata’s books, a great Hindu epic poem written in Sanskrit. Holst’s opera is a form of a vocal and instrumental meditation.

Sancta Susanna by Paul Hindemith is a kind of a contrast to Holst. The opera was written in two weeks, at the turn of January and February 1921, in the midst of the huge political and cultural ferment of the Weimar Republic. Hindemith, aged 26 at that time, was deemed to be the leading composer of the German modernism.

Sancta Susanna, which originated a hundred years ago, had its premiere in 1922 in Frankfurt. The work belongs to the 20th century world opera classics. In recent years it was staged in numerous operas, including the Paris Opera, in Milanese La Scala, Covent Garden in London and its concert version in the New York Philharmonic.

The tale is based on the text by August Stramm, considered to be the first German expressionist poet, who died in the First World War. The idea of the story focuses on the question of possession by Satan, which nowadays carries an association with The Fiery Angel by Sergei Prokofiev or The Devils of Loudun by Krzysztof Penderecki, written much later.

Sāvitri i Sancta Susanna differ in the musical language and style. Holst’s work evokes an ambience of primeval past, whereas Hindemith’s opera is the expressionism in its truest form.

Friday, 26th of March 2021, 7:30 pm, AMU Concert Hall

ONLINE CONCERT
25th LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN EASTER FESTIVAL
UNKNOWN OPERAS BY WELL-KNOWN COMPOSERS

PERFORMERS:

Justyna OŁÓW (Sāvitri) – mezzosoprano
Krystian KRZESZOWIAK (Satyavān) – tenor
Mariusz GODLEWSKI (Death) – baritone
Katarzyna HOŁYSZ (Susanna) – soprano
Anna BERNACKA (Clementia) – mezzosoprano
Anna LUBAŃSKA (Old Nun) – mezzosoprano
Poznan Chamber Choir
Bartosz Michałowski – choirmaster
Łukasz BOROWICZ – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Gustav Holst, Sāvitri (concert version of the opera)
• Paul Hindemith, Sancta Susanna, Op. 21 (concert version of the opera)

The concert will be aired on Polish Radio Program 2 and online on the website of the Polish Radio.

 

Partnerzy:

During both editions of the nearest concert entitled Pictures at an Exhibition (and Not Only) (scheduled for the 18th and the 19th of March, AMU Concert Hall) the audience will meet two ensembles made up of the musicians of Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra: the percussionists and the brass players.

The program of the concert includes an unusually interesting arrangement of the famous Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky.

The works that will be performed at the concerts are the original musical pieces from the 20th and the 21st century: light-hearted, often humorous and related to a dance theme, for example ragtime by Walter Sommerfeld and Peter Sadlo, Jonathan Ovalle’s Danza Furioso referring to the flamenco tradition, Pete O’Gorman’s Fire filled with rhythmic flames or the sounds of the Brazilian samba Sambaneira – Roda by Jerzy Marek Mackiewicz, as well as the new arrangements of the excerpts of well-known pieces, such as the Dance of the Little Swans from the ballet Swan Lake by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the Gypsy Dance from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet, or the Arrival of Sheba by Georg Friedrich Händel.

The aforementioned Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky will close the event.

The work, which is a musical illustration of the impression from Viktor Hartmann’s watercolour exhibition, was composed in 1874 as a cycle of 10 piano miniatures. It consists of the recurrent Promenade which unites movements presenting extremely suggestive fairytale musical images, portraits and soundscapes.

Thursday, 18th of March 2021, 7 pm, AMU Concert Hall
Friday, 19th of March 2021, 7 pm, AMU Concert Hall

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (AND NOT ONLY)

PERFORMERS:
Percussionists of the Poznan Philharmonic
Brass of the Poznan Philharmonic

PROGRAM:

• Walter Sommerfeld / Peter Sadlo, Max und Moritz – ragtime
• Jonathan Ovalle, Danza Furioso
• Pete O’ Gorman, Fire
• Upbeat suite: Pyotr Tchaikovsky – Dance of the Little Swans from the ballet Swan Lake, Modest Mussorgsky – Chicks in Their Shells from Pictures at an Exhibition; Georges Bizet – Gypsy Dance from the opera Carmen (arranged by Brian Slawson)
• Jerzy Marek Mackiewicz, Sambaneira – Roda
• Georg Friedrich Händel, Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (arranged by Paul Archibald)
• Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition (arranged by Christopher Mowat)

Season tickets:
SG (18.03) DL | MW (19.03)

Tickets: price: A

Below we present the schedule of the Poznan Philharmonic concerts till the end of March.

According to the decision of the Governmental Crisis Management Team, during the event only half of the auditorium can be filled. While staying in the building of the AMU Concert Hall keeping the sanitary measures is mandatory, including wearing a mask covering both your nose and mouth (in accordance with the recent guidelines it is not allowed to wear visors).

We would like to remind you that the listeners are obliged to follow the rules of procedure of the Poznan Philharmonic Concert Hall during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to sign a statement about the current state of health and hand it to the employees of the Poznan Philharmonic when entering the AMU Concert Hall.

Rules of the audience organization in AMU Concert Hall – the Auditorium of the Poznan Philharmonic

Statement of the attendee of the concerts organized by Poznan Philharmonic

Until the 26th of March the ticket office of the Poznan Philharmonic is opened from Tuesday to Friday between 1 pm and 5 pm, as well as an hour before each concert.

 

Thursday, 18th of March 2021, 7 pm, AMU Concert Hall
Friday, 19th of March 2021, 7 pm, AMU Concert Hall

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (AND NOT ONLY)

PERFORMERS:
Percussionists of the Poznan Philharmonic
Brass of the Poznan Philharmonic

PROGRAM:

• Walter Sommerfeld / Peter Sadlo, Max und Moritz – ragtime
• Jonathan Ovalle, Danza Furioso
• Pete O’ Gorman, Fire
• Upbeat suite: Pyotr Tchaikovsky – Dance of the Little Swans from the ballet Swan Lake, Modest Mussorgsky – Chicks in Their Shells from Pictures at an Exhibition; Georges Bizet – Gypsy Dance from the opera Carmen (arranged by Brian Slawson)
• Jerzy Marek Mackiewicz, Sambaneira – Roda
• Georg Friedrich Händel, Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (arranged by Paul Archibald)
• Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition (arranged by Christopher Mowat)

Season tickets:
SG (18.03) DL | MW (19.03)

Tickets: price: A

 

Friday, 26th of March 2021, 7:30 pm, AMU Concert Hall

ONLINE CONCERT
25th LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN EASTER FESTIVAL
UNKNOWN OPERAS BY WELL-KNOWN COMPOSERS

PERFORMERS:

Justyna OŁÓW (Sāvitri) – mezzosoprano
Krystian KRZESZOWIAK (Satyavān) – tenor
Mariusz GODLEWSKI (Death) – baritone
Katarzyna HOŁYSZ (Susanna) – soprano
Anna BERNACKA (Clementia) – mezzosoprano
Anna LUBAŃSKA (Old Nun) – mezzosoprano
Poznan Chamber Choir
Bartosz Michałowski – choirmaster
Łukasz BOROWICZ – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Gustav Holst, Sāvitri (concert version of the opera)
• Paul Hindemith, Sancta Susanna, Op. 21 (concert version of the opera)

The concert will be aired on Polish Radio Program 2 and online on the website of the Polish Radio

In the Poznan Philharmonic spring will appear… on the 12th of March. That day at 7 pm, in AMU Concert Hall, the opening concert of the 50th Poznan Music Spring Festival starts.

Once again the Poznan Philharmonic engages in the organization of the symphonic concert within the International Festival of Contemporary Music Poznan Music Spring, referring to the beginning of the Festival dating back to the 1960s, as well as the long-standing tradition of taking part in this event which attracts many auditors and contemporary music lovers.

Year 2021 sees the 50th edition of the Poznan Music Spring. The jubilee, especially the golden one, obliges – that’s why the concert on the 12th of March opening the 50th edition of the Festival will have a really festive spirit (due to the pandemic other Festival concerts are scheduled for autumn). We will listen to four excellent performers in the solo parts of four works: Marzena Michałowska (soprano), Jakub Kaszuba (oboe), Wojciech Jeliński (trombone) and Damian Kurek (trumpet). The three last soloists are the artists of the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra.

The first work performed during the concert will be a piece written by the founder of the Festival and the patron of the Poznan Philharmonic, Tadeusz Szeligowski: Green Songs, in an orchestration by Maciej Żółtowski prepared specifically for that concert, with participation of the orchestra. One can call it a premiere of the work in a new version.

The subsequent points of the evening will be filled by concertos for wind instruments. Four Dialogues for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra by Tadeusz Baird is a 20th century Polish classic work in the oboe music literature. The piece by Zbigniew Kozub, Concerto for Trombone and Small Orchestra, was composed especially for the evening opening the jubilee Poznan Music Spring and specifically for Wojciech Jeliński. The climax of the concert is the first Poznan performance of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra from 2015, one of the late works of the great composer, the 1st death anniversary of whom we will soon commemorate. Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra will be led by Łukasz Borowicz.

Spanish energy and a steady Austrian town have been merged in a concert held in two editions scheduled for the 4th and the 5th of March at 7 pm in the AMU Concert Hall. The event features Krzysztof Meisinger (guitar), Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Marek Pijarowski.

‘I also remember (…) one morning, a couple of months later’, recalled Joaquín Rodrigo, ‘when, standing in my little studio at Rue Saint Jacques in the heart of the Latin Quarter, (…) I heard a voice inside me singing the whole Adagio theme at one go, without hesitation. Immediately afterwards, at a stretch, the theme of the third movement. I quickly understood that a work has been created. Our intuition never misleads us in these cases…’

Concierto de Aranjuez… The magic of place charmed into music… As Aranjuez is a special location, called the oasis of Castile or the Spanish Versaille for a reason. In this small town situated almost 50 kilometres from Madrid, the Spanish rulers of the Bourbon dynasty in the 18th century built a magnificent residence: Palacio Real de Aranjuez. The royal palace is surrounded by gardens covering 300 hectares.

The walk through the lanes, surprising every now and then with an abundance of the vegetation, fountains, sculptures, brooks and ponds is a real feast for the senses. The composer sensed in it the scent of magnolias, bird songs and the spouting of fountains. He was blind from the age of three and within the sounds of the concert he depicted the sensuality of the gardens he had been strolling through with his wife Victoria.

The concert was written in 1939 in Paris. Shortly after it was completed the Spanish civil war had ended and Rodrigo and his wife returned to Spain in September 1939 – in their luggage they carried the manuscript of the Concierto written in Braille format. The premiere was held on the 9th of November 1940 in the Palacio de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. The soloist was the guitarist Regino Sáinz de la Maza.

Concierto de Aranjuez brought Rodrigo international recognition and his name has grown together with Aranjuez for ever. Not only the composer has his monument here, but also… the work itself. In 1991 Juan Carlos, the king of Spain, has ennobled Joaquín Rodrigo Marqués de los jardines de Aranjuez (the marquis of the Aranjuez gardens).

Symphony No. 36 in C Major, KV 425, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a unique composer record. The piece was written in only four days! When Mozart was travelling from Salzburg to Vienna he stopped in Linz at the house of count Johann Joseph Anton von Thun-Hohenstein. It was the 30th of October 1783. Count Thun scheduled Mozart’s composer concert for the 4th of November, however he didn’t have any of his symphonies with him. So Mozart decided to… write a new symphony, so the concert can take place. He finished it a day before the event. The name of the work – Linz Symphony – derives from its place of origin.

Thursday, 4th of March 2021, 7 pm, AMU Concert Hall
Friday, 5th of March 2021, 7 pm, AMU Concert Hall

CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ

PERFORMERS:
Krzysztof MEISINGER – guitar
Marek PIJAROWSKI – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Joaquín Rodrigo, Concierto de Aranjuez
Allegro con spirito
Adagio
Allegro gentile

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No. 36 in C Major, KV 425, Linz
Adagio – Allegro spiritoso
Andante
Menuetto
Finale

Season tickets:

SG (4.03)
DL | MW (5.03)

Tickets: prize: A