During both editions of the concert entitled “Violin and… the Hen” in the AMU Concert Hall (held on the 18th and the 19th of February) we are going to listen to the music of Sergei Prokofiev and Joseph Haydn. The concert soloist will be the violinist Guy Braunstein, the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Berliner Philharmoniker (2000-2013), and the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra will be led by Ariel Zuckermann.

‘I wrote the first movement of the Violin Concerto No. 2 in Paris, the second – in Voronezh. I completed the orchestration in Baku, and the first performance took place in Madrid’ – that’s what Sergei Prokofiev wrote about the origin of his Violin Concerto No. 2. The work was composed in 1953 for a French virtuoso Robert Soëtens (with whom the author often performed) and the same year, on the 1st of December, the premiere was held. With Robert Soëtens, naturally, as the soloist – he was an active promoter of the piece for many years and presented it as the first violinist in numerous countries. 37 years after the Madrid premiere he performed it for the first time in South Africa. The violinist was 75 years old at that time, however he still had… twenty years of an artistic career before him, as he passed three months before his 100th birthday.

Symphony No. 83 in G minor ‘The Hen’ is the second of the cycle of six Paris Symphonies (No. 82-87) by Joseph Haydn, which were commissioned by the Paris Music Society, Le Concert de la Loge Olympique. The piece, like many other works by Haydn, received its nickname thanks to the listeners’ imagination. This time the French discovered in the music the sound imitating… a cackling hen. Hence the popular name of the Symphony. It is worth checking whether the French were right…

Thursday, 18.02.2021, 7 p.m., AMU Concert Hall
Friday, 19.02.2021, 7 p.m., AMU Concert Hall

VIOLIN AND… THE HEN

PERFORMERS:

Guy BRAUNSTEIN – violin
Ariel ZUCKERMANN – conductor
Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra

PROGRAM:

• Sergei Prokofiev, Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63
  Allegro moderato
  Andante assai
  Allegro, ben marcato
• Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 83 in G minor ‘The Hen’
  Allegro spiritoso
  Andante
  Menuet: Allegretto
  Finale: Vivace

Season tickets:

SG (18.02)
DL | MW (19.02)

Tickets: prize A