MUSIC, JUST LIKE LIFE – ABOUT 2018/2019 SEASON

Music, just like life…

We like – perhaps even love – jubilees. If this holds true, then in the wake of Poznań Philharmonic’s seventieth-anniversary season, we offer you one that carries a huge bouquet of musical… anniversaries. From Gioacchino Rossini, to Leonard Bernstein, Wojciech Kilar, Krzysztof Penderecki, to Grażyna Bacewicz, Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Meyer, Piotr Moss, Mieczysław Wajnberg, Richard Strauss or Krzysztof Komeda. A special place in this kaleidoscope of anniversaries is held by Stanisław Moniuszko, whose birth bicentennial falls in 2019. It will be a unique opportunity to present to music lovers his most famous pieces, as well as compositions lesser-known and thoroughly unknown. Present them at concerts, on records, but also… on the silver screen. Not only do we strive to actively contribute to the commemorations; we also want to do it in an original way.

We are extremely pleased that the opening of the new season coincides with the golden jubilee of Young Music-Lover Movement ‘Pro Sinfonika’. A unique phenomenon, its alumni number hundreds of thousands. Though constantly evolving, the movement remains permanently young and invariably attractive for the youngest, as proven by the offer for the coming season, as well as by attendance at concerts, meetings, and competitions. We are indebted to all those who are determined – in spite of all kinds of problems – to continue Alojzy Andrzej Łuczak’s artistic-educational enterprise.

Naturally, we have not forgotten about anniversaries associated with the history of Poland, and of our region of Wielkopolska: the 1050th anniversary of the establishment of the first Polish bishopric, or the centenaries of regaining independence by Poland, and of the outbreak of the Wielkopolska uprising. We also mark the fortieth anniversary of the first Pole’s appointment as pontiff.

The repertoire menu contains a number of compositions Poznań will hear for the first time. We are glad to have been able to invite a group of prominent guests, not infrequently stars of world-famous concert venues and opera stages: soloists, conductors, ensembles, and… actors. A significant number will perform in Poznań (and often in Poland) for the first time. The new season will see the excellent Norwegian violin player Henning Kraggerud as the artist-in-residence, while the Korean violinist Bomsori Kim – who is going to perform with our orchestra also outside Poland – will assume the newly-established position of the soloist-in-residence. We are also glad to observe that another significant Polish musical institution – the National Forum of Music in Wrocław – introduces the position of artist-in-residence. It will be held by an artist very well-known to Poznań audiences (and holder of the position with the Poznań Philharmonic in the 2016/2017 season), Nikolaj Znaider.

We find ourselves privileged that in the year to mark the centenary of regaining independence by our country we will perform excellent works by Po­lish composers at prestigious concert venues of Berlin, Milan, and Prague; that we have and will record world phonographic premieres; and that in 2019 we shall once again present ourselves at international music festivals: in Warsaw (23rd Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival), and in Chorin, Germany (56th Choriner Musiksommer).

Enjoying the prospect of meeting you, on behalf of the artists of the Poznań Philharmonic, of our guests, and in our own names, we wish to express profound gratitude to all those who made all these events possible.

Music, just like life, should be both good and bad, both serious and funny… Perhaps this observation by the famous (former) Poznań ‘Spud’, Jerzy Waldorff, could become an indication as to what works we will have an opportunity to experience in the course of this season, which – although non-jubilee itself – will be full of anniversaries.