News
The world premiere of Roman Maciejewski's "Songs of Bilitis"
2010-03-10
The world premiere of Roman Maciejewski's Songs of Bilitis will take place in Poznan on 16th March. The solo part will be performed by Marzena Michałowska and she will be accompanied by the Poznan Philharmonic conducted by Marcin Sompoliński.The world premiere of Roman Maciejewski’s Songs of Bilitis will take place in Poznan on 16th March. The solo part will be performed by Marzena Michałowska and she will be accompanied by the Poznan Philharmonic conducted by Marcin Sompoliński.
The Songs of Bilitis is a cycle of songs for soprano and symphony orchestra written by Maciejewski in 1935 as a new version of the piano version from 1932. Unfortunately the original version with piano has been lost and the version for orchestra was never finished by the composer and so it remained until 2001 when Sebastian Krajewski undertook this task. This is the version that will be presented on March 16th in Poznan.
The cycle consists of 3 parts: The Flute, The Tomb of Bilitis, Remembrances of Mnasidika. The author of the text is the French poet and writer Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925), and the author of the Polish translation - Leopold Staff. The composition lasts around 12 minutes. Louÿs’s poetry had already been set by Claude Debussy.
Bilitis is the name of an ancient Greek poet, a student of Sappho, the alleged author of a set of love songs ("Les Chansons de Bilitis"). The real author of this poetry was Pierre Louÿs who used literary fiction, to lend credibility to the alleged translation of the work. The heroine, a Greek courtesan, Bilitis, appears in three incarnations: first as a young shepherdess, going through her first experience of love with her boyfriend. Then, already in the wide world, on the island of Lesbos, powerful love, as much deeply sensual and subtly emotional, joins her in union with another beautiful girl. Finally, in the profession as a courtesan, insinuated though without a hint of vulgarity, every man is able to buy her.
Most popular:
The theme of the 37th Krakow International Festival of Composers is music in music. Already in the 1970s, this issue was studied by the outstanding founder of the Krakow Theoretical School, Professor Mieczysław Tomaszewski. He reflected on the subject in an article entitled “At the Opening: why ‘music in music’”, which was published before one of the famous Music Meetings in Baranów.
The theme of Krzysztof Knittel’s work is refuge and the uncertainty and anxiety about the unknown associated with it, as well as the other side of this topic, i.e. the need to provide help and shelter. The text of the oratorio is based on a poem by Tadeusz Sławek. The piece features singing, recitations, choral parts and improvisations based on the traditions of the Middle East. The album was premiered on 15 March during the 11th Festival of Premieres in Katowice.
Musicologists commonly call it “Kras 52” – after the former reference number it was given in the Krasiński Library. It is the most valuable Polish source of medieval polyphonic music, which shaped the soundscape of the court of the first Jagiellons and Kraków at that time. The manuscript is gaining new life now, thanks to a performance edition by Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett and Marc Lewon. “Krasiński Codex” has just been published by PWM Edition with the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Frequent guest of the world’s most famous music venues (New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Royal Albert Hall and BBC Proms, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus), in February 2021 Bomsori signed an exclusive contract with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. As of this year, she also bears the honourable title of ambassador of Grażyna Bacewicz’s music, which she performs worldwide, promoting the legacy of Poland’s most important woman composer.
The 4CD album featuring songs and instrumental works by the Silesian master goes on sale as of 8 November. Released by the ANAKLASIS music label, it will be premiered on 3 December during a special PWM Edition concert held as part of the 12th International Days of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki at the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice.
The esteemed American-Canadian jazz musician Michael Bates, his Acrobat Ensemble and the Lutosławski Quartet will perform three concerts in Poland in November. The repertoire will include material recorded by the musicians on the album METAMORPHOSES: VARIATIONS ON LUTOSŁAWSKI, released by ANAKLASIS in the REVISIONS series.
The artists have already successfully presented it at Lincoln Center and Barbès Jazz Club in New York. In autumn 2024 we will have the opportunity to hear them live for the first time in Poland: 14.11 - Krakow, 15.11 - Lublin, 17.11 - Wroclaw.
The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw invites to the inaugural session of the biennial International Digital Musicology Conference, which will be held 23–25 October 2024, at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Poland. The conference focuses on the integration of digital technologies into musicological research, with a special emphasis on introducing digital tools and methods to the Polish academic community, where digital musicology has not yet been widely adopted.
Although Ludomir Różycki - one of the most important representatives of Young Poland - enjoyed spectacular success as a composer during his lifetime, his works are rarely included in concert programmes today. It is therefore worth remembering his exceptional art.
Aleksander Nowak continues his original cycle of compositions that enter into a dialogue with most recent Polish literary works. The album premiere of his opera based on Marcin Wicha’s Nike-awarded book Things I Didn’t Throw Out will take place during the AUKSODRONE festival in Tychy.
Musical themes from Coppola’s cult movie, as deconstructed and reinterpreted by this wayward duo, will be performed at a live concert accompanied by the premiere of THEMES OF DRACULA from ANAKLASIS on vinyl records.
