Fourteen years have passed like one day…. Has that thought run through the head of Maestro Marek Pijarowski when on Friday evening, on the 18th of June, he raised the baton for the last time at the end of the magnificent Italian Symphony by Felix Mendelssohn? The concert he led that day, closing the 2020/2021 artistic season of the Poznan Philharmonic, was also his jubilee concert which crowned the 50th anniversary of artistic work and the 70th birthday anniversary of the Maestro (hence the concert’s title: “Maestro”). It was also the last time he appeared on the stage of the AMU Concert Hall as the Chief Conductor of the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra. Thus there were many emotional moments and occasions for acknowledgments.
Marek Woźniak, Marshal of the Wielkopolska Region, Wojciech Nentwig, Director of the Poznan Philharmonic and Radosław Komolka, Inspector of the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra thanked Maestro for his excellent work in the past seasons (Marek Pijarowski was the Chief Conductor from 2007/2008 artistic season to 2020/2021). The Marshal and the Director also expressed words of gratitude to the conductor for lending a helping hand to the Philharmonic and the orchestra years ago, when they were going through a tough time.
Meanwhile Maestro spared no warm words towards the orchestra and thanked it for the most wonderful years he had spent with it. He also recalled the beginnings, when Wojciech Nentwig, freshly minted Director of the Poznan Philharmonic, called him with an appointment proposal. They met in Wroclaw.
‘I listened to him envisioning the development of the Philharmonic and I thought: what a lunatic!’, said Marek Pijarowski from the stage. ‘I kept listening and… I got more and more involved, so I thought: maybe two lunatics? And so it began…’
There were gifts, flowers, even a cake baked for Maestro especially by one of the orchestra’s violinists. There were thanks and compliments. And the promise, the most important one for the music lovers: we do not say “goodbye” to Marek Pijarowski, but “see you soon”. In the next artistic season he will appear on the stage of the AMU Concert Hall as the Guest Conductor.