INTERNET CONCERTS

Due to the government’s decision to maintain the epidemiological constraints which aims at limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus, including the closure of cultural institutions for the audience till at least the 31st of January, we would like to inform that the Poznan Philharmonic concerts will until then be broadcast online.

We invite you to the Internet Concerts every Friday at 7 p.m.

15.01.2021
BEETHOVEN OUR CONTEMPORARY
IMPERIAL FEAST

Saleem Abboud ASHKAR piano
Ariel ZUCKERMANN conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major, Op. 73

22.01.2021
WORLD OPERA STARS
THE VOICE OF THE VIENNESE CLASSICS

Simona ŠATUROVÁ soprano
Łukasz BOROWICZ conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

The program includes:

Symphony No. 86 in D major by Joseph Haydn and famous arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

29.01.2021
DOUBLE BASS AND… BEAR

Piotr CZERWIŃSKI double bass
Marek PIJAROWSKI conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

Program:

Domenico Dragonetti, Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra
Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 82 in C major “The Bear”

You can find more concert details on our website and Facebook profile.

***

Welcome to our channel:

An excellent pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar and the Poznan Phiharmonic Orchestra led by Ariel Zuckermann are preparing a truly imperial feast for Friday, the 15th of January. During the next Internet Concert, held as usual at 7 p.m., we will listen to the Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73 by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Piano Concerto No. 5 was Beethoven’s last piano concerto and the only one the composer did not perform in front of the public. It was written in the years of 1809-1811 and the premiere performance took place on the 28th of November 1811 in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, under the baton of Johann Philipp Christian Schulz. The soloist was Friedrich Schneider, as Beethoven, almost completely deaf then, didn’t risk to undertake that role, despite the custom in the case of the previous concertos. The Viennese audience first heard the work a few months later: on the 12th of February 1812, this time the soloist was Beethoven’s apprentice, pianist Carl Czerny, highly regarded by the composer. Unfortunately, the innovative masterpiece had once again exceeded the tastes of the conservative Viennese public – the work received a cool reception.

Piano Concerto No. 5 has earned the “Imperial” title still during Beethoven’s lifetime, though, like many other names of that sort, it wasn’t given by the composer himself. It was probably invented by Johann Baptista Cramer, the English publisher of the work. Some people explain the epithet derives from the concerto’s dedication for archduke Rudolf Habsburg, others say it relates to the heroic and monumental, almost military character of the piece.

The concerto is considered to be the culmination in Beethoven’s piano creation. In this work the composer reaches an ideal balance between the emotional content and the virtuoso elements. A musical feast fit for emperors…

PERFORMERS

Saleem Abboud ASHKAR piano
Ariel ZUCKERMANN conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM

Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73

Allegro
Adagio un poco mosso
Rondo. Allegro

***
WELCOME TO OUR CHANNEL!

A musical drama in four acts, though with a cheerful ending spiced with a hint of a certain melancholy – that is how one can describe Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 8 by Frédéric Chopin, which will be performed during the next Internet Concert of the Poznan Philharmonic on Friday, 8th of January 2021 at 7 p.m.

Chopin began to write the Trio in 1828 and presumably completed in the spring of 1829. The work had to wait another year for its premiere performance – it was played for the first time in the August of 1830, in the spacious salon of the Chopin family house, in the presence of Wojciech Żywny and Józef Elsner, the pedagogues of young Chopin. And although it was later dedicated to prince Antoni Radziwiłł, it originated as a school score during the composer’s studies with Józef Elsner. The musical piece is the only chamber work written during Chopin’s adolescence. The echoes of Ludwig van Beethoven’s, Franz Schubert’s and Johann Sebastian Bach’s music can be heard in it, as well as the motives from oberek and krakowiak, Polish folk dances.

This is what Mieczysław Tomaszewski, a prominent authority on Frédéric Chopin, wrote about the Piano Trio in G minor: “… here we have a piece by all means remarkable, a perfect example of Polish chamber music. At the same time it is one of the most superb works of its genre in the European music. There is only one problem: the Trio was composed in a somewhat less Chopin style. Or, more rightly said, in a different style than the one we are inclined to consider as Chopin’s.”

The chamber work of Frédéric Chopin will be performed by the Poznan Piano Trio composed of the pianist Laura Kluwak-Sobolewska and the musicians of Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra: Anna Ziółkowska – violin and Monika Baranowska – cello.

PERFORMERS

Poznan Piano Trio:
Laura KLUWAK-SOBOLEWSKA – piano
Anna ZIÓŁKOWSKA – violin
Monika BARANOWSKA – cello

PROGRAM:

Frédéric Chopin, Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 8
Allegro con fuoco
Scherzo
Adagio sostenuto
Finale: Allegretto

***
WELCOME TO OUR CHANNEL!

We have been looking forward particularly for that evening for many years. We were always pleased that you had chosen to spend the last evening of the year with the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra and the invited artists and that at midnight we had all welcomed the New Year by exchanging good wishes.

This year’s plans had to be altered due to the pandemic. Though we cannot meet personally in the AMU Concert Hall, we won’t leave you alone that evening. We will be together thanks to the music. Once again we will listen to famous arias, polkas, waltzes, csardas themes and excerpts of popular operas. It will be absorbing not only as far as music is concerned, as the hosts of the New Year’s Eve Concert are the soprano Katarzyna Hołysz and the conductor Łukasz Borowicz, who will both shine artistically and share many interesting tales and musical anecdotes.

We would you to another Internet Concert of the Poznan Philharmonic: the New Year’s Eve Concert on the 31st of December at 8 p.m.

PERFORMERS:

Katarzyna HOŁYSZ soprano
Łukasz BOROWICZ conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

Gioacchino Rossini, Overture to the opera “L’Italiana in Algeri”
Franz Lehár, “Vilja Song” from the operetta “The Merry Widow”
Imre Kálmán, Sylvia’s Csardas “Heia, heia in den Bergen” from the operetta “The Csardas Princess”
Johann Strauss, Pizzicato Polka
Franz Lehár, Csardas “When the Violin Play” from the operetta “The Gypsy Love”
Johann Strauss, Emperor Waltz
Ludomir Różycki, Caton Waltz Caton’s Waltz “An Old Friend of Mine” from Act III of the opera “Casanova”
Johann Strauss, Banditen-Galopp
Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, Plaisir d’amour
Rudolf Sieczyński, Wien, Wien nur du allein
Johann Strauss, On the Beautiful Blue Danube
Franz Lehár, Giuditta’s Aria “Meine Lippen” from the operetta “Giuditta”
Johann Strauss, Radetzky March

***

WELCOME TO OUR CHANNEL!

In relation to the epidemiological situation and the government’s decision to close cultural institutions until at least the 17th of January we would like to inform that the concerts of Poznan Philharmonic will be broadcast on the Internet till that time. We invite you to Internet Concert every Friday at 7 p.m.

For more detailed information about concerts please check our website and Facebook profile.

***

WELCOME TO OUR CHANNEL!

Two years ago the Poznan Philharmonic released an unusual album prepared especially for the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Greater Poland uprising. “The Greater Poland Symphony 1918. Songs of the Greater Poland Uprising” is a unique musical meeting of the past and the present. On the same album we can find “The Greater Poland Symphony 1918” by Marek Sewen, commissioned by the Poznan Philharmonic on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising (performed by the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Poznan Nightingales led by Łukasz Borowicz) and songs from the period of the uprising, songs from a hundred years ago, but – one might say – in “new packaging”.

Eight new a cappella choral works presented then for the first time on the album are contemporary arrangements of melodies sung by the participants of the Greater Poland uprising or written later to honour the heroic insurgents. Lifting the spirits, comforting, reassuring – over the last decades they were frequently arranged, often in the traditional, marching style.

We requested young Polish composers for a new insight: Marek Raczyński, Dominik Puk, Jakub Szafrański and Jan Krutul. We asked them to look from their own perspective and not to be afraid to arrange them according to their own understanding and individual sentiment. To try to speak to a contemporary listener, who lives in a totally different reality, through military songs. They carried out their task brilliantly.

The songs from the uprising were recorded by Poznan Chamber Choir conducted by Bartosz Michałowski. On the 102nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Greater Poland uprising we would like to remind one of them – the famous “Rota”, this time arranged by Dominik Puk: here

Carols performed by the Poznan Nightingales fill the program of the next Internet Concert, to which we invite you on the post-Christmas Monday on the 28th of December at 7 p.m.

The Nightingale caroling has become a long tradition. It started in 1945, right after the choir reopened its activity. First in the Poznan church dedicated to All Saints at Grobla Street, then in the AMU Concert Hall. Many people, not only the residents of Poznan, cannot imagine the Christmas season without these concerts.

Whole generations were raised on the carols arranged, among others, by Prof. Stefan Stuligrosz and performed by the Boys’ and Men’s Choir of the Poznan Philharmonic. In the times of the People’s Republic of Poland the albums of the Nightingales (they recorded seven of them back then) were the top-selling recordings of carols. They have maintained their popularity until this day.

The Nightingale carols used to accompany, and still do, celebrating Christmas at Polish homes. We listen to them willingly, though in this special season it also might be worth returning to the old traditions Prof. Stefan Stuligrosz told about in one of the interviews: ‘Every evening from Christmas till the feast day of Our Lady of Candlemas our whole family used to sing for a quarter of an hour. On Sunday afternoons we would sing even for an hour. Father played the mandolin, and I – an out of tune Stradivarius bought from the Gypsies…’

PERFORMERS:

Boys’ and Men’s Choir of the Poznan Philharmonic The Poznan Nightingales
Maciej Bolewski organ
Maciej Wieloch conductor

PROGRAM:

Carols arranged by Stefan Stuligrosz

Wśród nocnej ciszy
Lulajże Jezuniu
Adeste fideles

Carols arranged by Jan Maklakiewicz

W żłobie leży
Gdy śliczna Panna
Gdy się Chrystus rodzi

Carols arranged by Stefan Stuligrosz

Dzisiaj w Betlejem
W dzień Bożego Narodzenia
Jezus malusieńki
Przybieżeli do Betlejem
Tryumfy Króla Niebieskiego

***

Subsidy from the resources of COVID-19 Counteraction Fund

***

WELCOME TO OUR CHANNEL!

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for being with us. We cannot meet you at the concerts in the AMU Concert Hall, but knowing how important the contact with art is to you, we keep preparing online music meetings.

Thank you for appreciating our efforts. Thank you for the e-mails and phone calls, for taking an interest in our actions in these difficult times, for the acknowledgements and the willingness to financially support our work, expressed by many of you.

We would like to thank every person who is willing to support us with any amount of many – every zloty counts.

The donations can be paid to the account of our institution:

Filharmonia Poznańska
ul. Święty Marcin 81
61-808 Poznań

account number: 90 1090 1359 0000 0000 3501 8949

The message accompanying the transfer should say: Darowizna – wsparcie dla Filharmonii Poznańskiej.

The music of father and son, Johann Sebastian Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, can be heard at the next Internet Concert on Friday, 18th of December at 7 p.m.

Nowadays the figure of Jan Sebastian Bach is often put first, later his sons: Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel (from the first marriage of Johann Sebastian with Maria Barbara), as well as Gottfried Heinrich, Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian (from the second marriage with Anna Magdalena).

It is worth bearing in mind, however, that for almost two hundred years the Bach family significantly contributed to the development of the history of music. The clan was so associated with this field of art, that in Thuringia, where the family members lived, every musician was called a “Bach”, no matter if he was related to this family or not.

Johann Sebastian became described as “the father of the great Bachs” when his sons left their home town for other European destinations, where they became famous. Their nicknames derived from the places where they lived for the longest time and worked the most intensively. That’s why Carl Philipp Emanuel is called the Berlin or the Hamburg Bach. His Symphony in F Major was written in Hamburg (in the years of 1775-76), where in 1768 he took up the position of cantor after his godfather, Georg Philipp Telemann.

Out of many piano concerts by Johann Sebastian his Concerto in D minor is one of the most popular among pianists. And though probably it is a transcription of an unknown work, the authors of the “Concert Guide” state that “both in the piano part and in the orchestra accompaniment, notably in the excellent counterpoint, one can see the mastership of Bach”.

We invite you for the evening of Bachs.

PERFORMERS

Martin STADTFELD piano
Ariel ZUCKERMANN conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), Symphony in F Major H.655, Wq 183/3
Allegro di molto
Larghetto
Presto
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Piano Concerto in D minor BWV 1052
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro

***

Subsidy from the resources of COVID-19 Counteraction Fund

***

WELCOME TO OUR CHANNEL!

Excellent and well-known to the Poznan audience artists: the pianist Martin Stadtfeld and the conductor Ariel Zuckermann, will be the heroes of the next Internet Concert to which, along with the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, we invite you on Friday on the 11th of December at 7 p.m.

In the December evening we will listen to the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Magdalena Łoś wrote about that work in the program of the Poznan Philharmonic concert, when it was performed by Piotr Anderszewski (8th of February 2019):

Regardless of the doubts concerning the chronology, Beethoven’s Concerto in C Major, Op. 15, was the first one published from the collection of piano concertos and it became number “1”. It was composed in the 1790s in Vienna, however Beethoven postponed its publication until 1801. Meanwhile he had been playing it, testing, altering, improving… He guarded it jealously as his valuable possession and a strong point in the repertoire of a concert pianist. It was back then, when the audience admired the artist in that particular role – of a virtuoso and a brilliant improviser, and the subsequent performances of the concerto spread its fame. It magnetized the public. Among numerous testimonies probably the most impressive is the description of Carl Czerny, who attended the concert in Berlin in 1796, when in all likelihood Beethoven performed the Concerto in C major, Op. 15. Czerny recalls tears flowing from the eyes of the listeners during the famous improvisations of the composer. Hardly anyone could resist that great deal of emotion. Czerny also admires the beauty and the originality of Beethoven’s musical ideas, as well as the boldness of the style in which he presented them. Despite leading the audience to tears, he could finally burst into laughter, as if mocking their reaction and the state he put them into.

Three versions of the original cadences to the first movement of the Concerto in C major, written down in 1809, are a priceless evidence which gives us an insight of the improvisational skill of the composer. He himself highly rated his work. Right before its publication he expressed an opinion that it is one of his best musical pieces so far. Its style refers to the piano concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in many ways (including the presence of trumpets and timpani, which was not obvious back then) and it also foreshadows Beethoven’s original musical language manifested by the sound of the aforementioned instruments or the rhapsodic second slow movement with the hypnotizing lyrical piano part in a marvellously dreamy mood. The energy and the earthy, whimsical humour leading us often into surprising directions of the final danceable rondo present the restless spirit of Beethoven, well-known from many of his subsequent works. In the opening movement it is also passionate and optimistic.

PERFORMERS:
Martin STADTFELD – piano
Ariel ZUCKERMANN – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM: