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Młynarski for Christmas
Symphony in F Major, op. 14 Polonia by Emil Młynarski is the newest phonographic release by Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded under Łukasz Borowicz at a concert held on 11 October 2024 at A. Mickiewicz University Auditorium in Poznań, Poland, the piece has been published by DUX as CD and LP.
Łukasz Borowicz writes about Emil Młynarski and his activity: The role Emil Młynarski plays in the history of Polish music cannot be overestimated. The talented conductor was instrumental in the founding and advancement of the Warsaw Philharmonic (he managed the society in its opening years, between 1901 and 1905), as well as in the development of Warsaw’s Wielki Theatre (a collaborator for a number of years, he was manager of the institution between 1919 and 1929).
Indefatigable promoter of Polish music abroad, prior to the establishment of a career in conducting, Emil Młynarski was a recognised violin virtuoso. It was also composing that constituted an immensely important part of his work; he penned pieces in almost all genres. The present recording of Symphony in F Major, op. 14 Polonia was inspired by a desire to promote one of the most interesting symphonies of its time, an apex achievement (side by side with Karol Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 2) of the post-Romantic vein in Polish music, and, simultaneously, one to complement the picture of the early-20th century Polish symphonic music.
Not only CDs, but also a limited collector’s edition of vinyl LPs hit the shelves right in time for Christmas. Both can be purchased at special promotional prices in the hallway of A. Mickiewicz University Auditorium prior to (and during the intermission in) the concert “Wieniawski przed Gwiazdką” (Wieniawski Before Christmas) held on 13 December 2024.
The CD “Emil Młynarski, Symphony in F Major, Op. 14 Polonia” is also available at “Pasja” music store in Poznań.
Co-funded by the Culture Promotion Fund, an earmarked state fund of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, under programme “Muzyczny ślad” (The Musical Trace) operated by National Institute for Music and Dance.
Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, as the only Polish orchestra, has found itself in the final stage of the most prestigious phonographic event in the world, the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA)!
Of the 374 nominations, the jury selected 48 finalists – three in each category. “Urlicht. Songs of Death and Resurrection” was recorded by the Poznań ensemble under Łukasz Borowicz with the baritone Samuel Hasselhorn; it also features the boys’ voices of The Poznań Nightingales, the Boys and Men’s Choir of the Poznań Philharmonic. The album of songs and airs by Gustav Mahler, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Hans Pfitzner, Engelbert Humperdinck, Alban Berg and Walter Braunfels, was published to excellent reviews and international honours by Harmonia Mundi.
Our orchestra’s recording competes in the category of Vocal Music with albums by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle with the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožena (“Czech Songs”), and by the French ensemble Les Talens Lyriques under Christophe Rousset with the baritone Michael Spyres (“In the Shadows”).
Holder of a number of nominations for the prize, Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra was awarded the trophy in 2018 for the album “Quo vadis” by Feliks Nowowiejski.
Łukasz Borowicz, the Chief Conductor of Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director of the Poznań Philharmonic has also been short-listed for the ICMA 2025. His album “Grażyna Bacewicz, Complete Symphonic Works Vol. 3: Symphony No. 1, Concerto for large orchestra, Partita for large orchestra, In una parte” recorded with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, and published by cpo, is nominated in the Symphonic Music category.
Winners of ICMA 2025 will be announced on 14 January 2025. The prize-giving ceremony and gala concert will be held at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf on 19 March 2025.
Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra has received as many as two nominations for one of the most prestigious record prizes in the world – the International Classical Music Awards 2025!
Nominated for the ICMA several times, in 2018 the Poznań orchestra won the prestigious trophy for the recording of Quo vadis by Feliks Nowowiejski.
This time, the international jury (composed of several outstanding musical critics) recognised two of our albums: “Grzegorz Fitelberg, Symphony in E-minor, Op. 16” (recorded at the concert conducted by Łukasz Borowicz at the University Auditorium on 6 October 2023, and published by DUX as CD and LP), as well as “Urlicht: Songs of Death and Resurrection” recorded by the Poznań ensemble under Łukasz Borowicz with the baritone Samuel Hasselhorn and the boys’ voices of The Poznań Nightingales, the Boys and Men’s Choir of the Poznań Philharmonic. Containing songs and arias by Gustav Mahler, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Hans Pfitzner, Engelbert Humperdinck, Alban Berg and Walter Braunfels, the album published by Harmonia Mundi has already garnered excellent reviews and international honours.
Łukasz Borowicz, who leads the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra on both records, has, furthermore, received two more ICMA 2025 nominations: for “Grażyna Bacewicz, Complete Symphonic Works Vol. 2: Overture for orchestra, Symphony No. 2, Variations for orchestra, Musica sinfonica in tre movimenti”, and “Grażyna Bacewicz, Complete Symphonic Works Vol. 3: Symphony No. 1, Concerto for large orchestra, Partita for large orchestra, In una parte” recorded with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and published by cpo.
This year, our albums compete with 374 records released by 117 publishers from all over the world. Winners shall be announced in January 2025, while the prize-giving ceremony and gala concert will be held at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf on 19 March 2025.
Titled “Sacrum and profanum”, the upcoming 515th Poznań Concert (University Auditorium, Saturday, 9 November 2024, 6 p.m.) promises to be a very interesting event, as – one might say – music lovers will be invited to visit two musical worlds in one evening.
Furthermore, it is the first concert to be broadcast on the Poznań Philharmonic’s YouTube channel (broadcast starts at 6 p.m.).
The opening part of the concert belongs to the Poznań Nightingales Boys and Men’s Choir of the Poznań Philharmonic, which celebrates its 85th anniversary. Under the baton of the ensemble’s conductor, Maciej Wieloch, the choristers will perform eight vocal pieces of early and modern music, ranging from Wacław of Szamotuły to Mikołaj Gomółka to Stefan Stuligrosz and Marek Raczyński.
The second part of the evening features two pieces by Andrzej Panufnik: Nocturne for Orchestra and Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra, of which the latter is the Polish premiere performance. The soloist of this part of the concert, the British pianist Clare Hammond, will also perform Concert Rondo for Piano and Orchestra, KV 382 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra will be led by Łukasz Borowicz, the ensemble’s principal conductor.
Streaming of concert subsidised by European Union under NextGenerationEU plan.
We wish to inform that on 31 October 2024 (Thursday), the box office of Poznań Philharmonic will be closed.
We encourage you to purchase the tickets online.
This year sees the tenth edition of Krzyżowa-Music Festival, of which you are a co-founder and Artistic Director. Where did the idea to hold a music festival in a place like this originate?
Two things came together: Having had a long-time connection with Dr. Matthias von Hülsen, whom I first met as a teenager when he invited me to be part of the „Junge Elite” concert series at Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a major German summer festival of which he is a founder and was executive director. And having participated regularly at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont (USA), which has been formative for me musically and personally.
Through Krzyżowa, these two things all of a sudden came together quite naturally:
The Krzyżowa estate, formerly Kreisau, was once owned by the von Moltke family, and Helmuth James and Freya von Moltke were friends with one of the Marlboro Music Festival’s founders, pianist Rudolf Serkin. And Matthias von Hülsen, is family-related to the Moltke family.
The estate of Krzyżowa, which was destroyed during WWII, has been re-constructed after the reconciliation mass exactly 35 years ago and is now a frequently visited center for meetings and youth exchange programs. So it seemed like an ideal place to host some 50 musicians to spend time exploring chamber music and also to make our participants aware of the history of Kreisau/Krzyżowa.
Workshops constitute an important element of Krzyżowa-Music Festival. Was your underlying intention to merge your artistic accomplishments with educational activity?
The character of Krzyżowa Music is strongly influenced from my experiences at Marlboro Music: I came there as a „junior“ musician and had the opportunity to work on a wide range of chamber music repertoire with wonderful fellow juniors and the chamber music legends of our times. Yet, everybody was open to everybody else‘s musical input- whether old or young- and the study process was at eye-level. There was hardly ever a masterclass atmosphere about it, even though, of course it is clear that for instance an Arnold Steinhardt (ex-primarius of the Guarneri String Quartet) has so much to „teach“ his younger colleagues. At the same time, he would always be equally open to any suggestions from his younger colleagues.
At the time, this was a musical approach I hadn‘t experienced before, and I found it beautiful.
The idea that one‘s musical journey and artistic development is a life-long learning process, and that all generations can always learn from and inspire each other.
As soloist, you have performed with illustrious orchestras led by such conductors, as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Kent Nagano… At the same time, you are very active as chamber musician. What do you find fascinating about performing with a symphony orchestra, and what about playing with a chamber ensemble?
First of all, I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play both with symphony orchestras and chamber music for the major part of my musical journey. Exploring a composer’s chamber music literature often seems to offer a deeper access into a composer‘s „inner world“. So I feel to get to know a composer better by knowing his or her chamber music repertoire, and this can only help accessing their orchestral repertoire.
Of course, there are concertos where the roles between the soloist and the orchestra are more hierarchically distributed, such as for instance a Mozart or a Paganini Violin Concerto, than say the Brahms or Bartók Violin Concertos, where some solos in the orchestra are just as important as the solo violin part itself.
But in general the approach towards symphonic and chamber music isn’t so different, I find. At least when it comes to the actual music making: It is all about listening and reacting towards other.
From your earliest age, you have also performed with your pianist sister Nicole. Do you come from a musical family?
My parents are both musical and love music, but have never taken it to any professional level. There are both in the medical (care) field.
In the 2024/2025 artistic season you are the Artist-In-Residence of Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra. In the previous, 2023/2024 season, you held a similar post in Bretagne, where you were Artist-In-Residence of Orchestre National de Bretagne. Do you know that Poznań is a twin town to Rennes, and the region of Wielkopolska – a twin region to Bretagne? One could say that Polish and French towns, as well as a Polish and French regions are also bound by the person of a German violinist, an artist-in-residence… And everybody is bound by music…
Wow, I admit that I wasn’t aware of this beautiful connection! We should all plan something together with these two wonderful orchestras!
Interviewer
Anna Plenzler
The newest record by Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, this time featuring Symphony in C minor, Op. 60, and Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 32 by Franz Xaver Scharwenka is about to hit the musical shelves. The album was recorded by the Poznań ensemble under Łukasz Borowicz with Jonathan Powell, the British virtuoso renowned for unconventional repertoire, both Romantic, and contemporary. It was released by the German label cpo, a few months prior to the centenary of Franz Xaver Scharwenka’s death, which falls on 8 December 2024.
It is yet another monographic album prepared by the Poznań Philharmonic that contains works by the Szamotuły-born composer. The first, recorded by pianist Francois Xavier Poizat with the same ensemble conducted by Łukasz Borowicz, and published by Naxos, was released in 2011. It contained Piano Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 82, Overture to the opera Mataswintha, Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 46 (mov. 2 Andante religioso), as well as a selection of Tańce polskie (Polish Dances).
Franz Xaver Scharwenka was born to a Polish-German family in Szamotuły, where he spent the first years of his life. This is also where he took his first musical steps. When he was fifteen, the Scharwenkas moved to Berlin, where Franz Xaver completed middle school and began musical studies. He went down in history not only as an illustrious composer and pianist, but also as educator and organiser of musical life. In 1881, he founded Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, and between 1891 and 1898 ran Scharwenka Music School in New York City. Revered throughout America, he had his only opera, Mataswintha, staged at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. He also wrote Methodik des Klavierspiels, which was published in Leipzig in 1907. A friend of Franz Liszt’s (to whom he dedicated the very Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor just recorded by the Poznań musicians), he also enjoyed recognition from Johannes Brahms.
Even though Scharwenka completed work on Symphony in C minor, Op. 60 in the early-1882, it was only almost two years later, on 1 December 1883, that the work had its premiere at the Königlichen Akademie der Künste in Copenhagen. Signale für Musikalische Welt wrote at the time: … in general, the piece was received favourably. In particular, the beautiful Scherzo and Adagio.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor was the composition to have paved the way for Scharwenka to world recognition. Initially, a two-movement fantasia, it sounded in its present, three-movement form for the first time on 24 April 1877 in Bremen. After the premiere performance, a reviewer wrote that the piece, “just like Chopin’s works, possesses the virtue of pure piano quality, while being splendidly instrumented to boot (…).”
Since its world premiere in June, the album recorded by Poznań Philharmonic’s Orchestra under Łukasz Borowicz and Poznań Nightingales Boys and Men’s Choir with the baritone Samuel Hasselhorn, has been garnering excellent reviews and distinctions.
Entitled Urlicht. Songs of Death and Resurrection, the album published by the renowned label harmonia mundi has found recognition with a number of music portals and magazines, incl. the Luxembourg’s Pizzicato (Supersonic), Australia’s Limelight Music, Arts & Culture (Editor’s Choice) and France’s Cescendo-Magazine (Joker!), Diapazon (5 diapasons), or Forum Opera (Record of the Month).
You can follow selected reviews below:
PIZZICATO (Luksemburg) https://bit.ly/3Tanhkd
LIMELIGHT MUSIC, ARTS & CULTURE (Australia) https://bit.ly/4e1Rr0X
CRESCENDO-MAGAZINE (Francja) https://bit.ly/4cKENCo
FORUM OPERA (Francja) https://bit.ly/3Z3qUML
OPERA LOUNGE (Niemcy) https://bit.ly/3Xcqkd4
GRAMOPHONE (Wielka Brytania) https://bit.ly/3AHCymp
ONLINE MERKER (Austria) https://bit.ly/3XohJFs
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL (Wielka Brytania) https://bit.ly/3WXmMLu
1. Box office of Poznan Philharmonic reopens after summer break on 2 September 2024.
In 2024/2025 artistic season, the box office operates:
- September: Monday-Friday, 1-5 p.m.,
- October-June: Tuesday-Friday, 1-5 p.m.,
- days of concerts organised by Poznań Philharmonic at University Auditorium: box office opens one hour prior to concert and closes at end of intermission.
2. Reserved DL and SG season tickets can be purchased as at 2 September.
3. Reserved KP season tickets can be purchased as at 16 September.
4. Reserved MW season tickets can be purchased as at 26 September.
5. Individual ticket sales at Philharmonic box office, online ticket sales, as well as sales of tickets at Centrum Informacji Kulturalnej (Culture Information Centre, 44, Ratajczaka st.) commence on 16 September.
6. Holders of 2023/2024 electronic tickets are requested to carry these while purchasing 2024-2025 season tickets.
7. Duplicate of a season ticket lost shall be issued against a charge of 50 PLN.
8. Individual ticket reservations, as well as enquiries regarding the new season can be made by mail at: rezerwacje@filharmoniapoznanska.pl, or by phone: (+48) 61 415 63 37; (+48) 61 852 22 66. In September, we shall remain at your disposal in University Auditorium hallway at box office opening times. However, with regard to reservations only, you are requested to contact us remotely (by mail or by phone).
9. Poznań Philharmonic reserves the right to change the above schedule of season and individual ticket sales, as well as to alter the calendar of concerts.
It was merely a fortnight or so ago that the world premiere was held of the newest album recorded by the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra under Łukasz Borowicz with the baritone Samuel Hasselhorn. The recording, which also features The Poznań Nightingales, the Boys and Men’s Choir of the Poznań Philharmonic, has already garnered excellent international reviews and distinctions.
Entitled Urlicht. Songs of Death and Resurrection, the album published by the renowned label Harmonia Mundi has just been awarded the SUPERSONIC distinction by the prestigious Luxembourg-based music portal PIZZICATO, which also published Remy Franck’s review of the recording.
This is a remarkable CD, not only because of Samuel Hasselhorn’s singing, which is outstanding as expected, but also because of the conductor Lukasz Borowicz. I have made it known in a long series of reviews that I hold him in high esteem. But the sound he produces in this program with the Poznan Philharmonic is phenomenal. In no other recording that I know of does so much happen in the orchestra in Mahler’s Revelge as you can hear in this recording. This is the whole Mahler theatre, the sonic cabinet of curiosities in full! But that’s not all: in Urlicht, the orchestra envelops the voice perfectly and, together with the instrumental parts, brings it to optimum effect, because the music is really complete. And Haselhorn’s voice is no less fascinating in this recital, his singing is dramatically gripping, with colourful and dynamic nuances and a concise presentation of the text. Revelge is not only dramatic with him, it is full of relentlessness, which makes the inner compulsion of the marching drastically audible, regardless of losses. Borowicz and the orchestra reinforce this thoughtless compulsion, which also makes the bones march in rank and file. Engelbert Humperdinck’s Verdorben! Gestorben! from the opera Königskinder is no less gripping because Hasselhorn sings very sensitively and Borowicz makes the rhapsodic quality of the opulent orchestral accompaniment communicative and evocative.
Completely different sounds are offered to the listener in Pierrot’s Tanzlied from Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt, in which the charm and bitterness of Pierrot are ideally combined in Hasselhorn’s lyrical singing to make us empathize with the fate of this clown.
What follows in Mahler’s Um Mitternaht is once again top-notch, as Borowicz places the voice in a luxury box with a wonderfully present and colorful orchestra. In comparison, Hampson and Bernstein sound almost pathetic and mannered.
Hasselhorn sings towards death in a very composed and almost positive and heroic way, without any lachrymose, surrounded by a colorful and grandiose orchestral sound, which has not often been heard in this rhetoric, neither with Karajan nor with Thielemann and Boulez: nowhere is the symbiosis of voice and orchestra as perfect as in this recording.
This is also true of the absolutely phenomenal and exciting Erlkönig setting of Herr Oluf. Mahler’s Urlicht sounds all the more moving in an interpretation marked by naturalness and honesty.
In Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Der alte Garten everything blossoms in the extreme chromaticism of the music, and the fascinating orchestration with the beautifully interwoven vocal lines makes this song transcend into beauty, not least thanks to Hasselhorn’s imaginative and vocally magnificent performance.
There is great romanticism in Braunfels’ description of a soldier’s grave, which contrasts sharply with the surreal duet between Marie and Wozzeck in Berg’s opera. But Marie is actually lost to the world through murder, while Mahler describes death in a completely different way. With Haselhorn, it becomes almost tender and movingly natural.
Borowicz underpins this with just as much beauty in the orchestra. Nothing is lost and you can hear everything interacting beautifully.