News
Polish music at the "Gaude Mater" International Festival in Częstochowa
2010-04-27
Paweł Łukaszewski’s Magnificat and Nunc dimittis will be played 3rd May. It will be one of a few pieces premiered during the history of “Gaude Mater” Festival and reminded to the audience this year.This Friday, 30th April, is the beginning of the 20th International Festival of Sacred Music in Czestochowa, “Gaude Mater”, and it runs until May 6th. The organizers have prepared a very interesting and varied program: from a performance of Bobby McFerrin and Morphing Vienna Chamber Orchestra from Austria, through Persian mystic poetry performed by “Rozaneh” from Iran, Handel’s Messiah performed by Retrospect Ensemble from the UK, the premiere of the Mass, Op. 22 for male choir and wind ensemble by Józef Elsner and a concert of European choral music of XX and XXI centuries, to a performance of the Sakala Brothers from Zambia. And these are not all the attractions…
On May 3rd, during a concert dedicated to the memory of Marek Jasiński, among other pieces, Paweł Łukaszewski’s Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for saxophone, mixed choir and strings will be performed; a stylistically original piece, “surprisingly uncommon musical associations, delighting with ordinary beauty, mysticism,” as once described by tri-city’s “Gazeta Wyborcza”. The piece will be performed by the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski.
At the same concert Canticum Canticorum by Romuald Twardowski will be performed, as well as pieces by Józef Świder, Juliusz Łuciuk, Marian Borkowski and Marek Jasiński.
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Iconic songs by Zygmunt Konieczny that audiences of Ewa Demarczyk loved decades ago in a new arrangement by Cezary Duchnowski. The latest ANAKLASIS album with Agata Zubel, Andrzej Bauer, Bartek Wąsik and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Humala is now available for purchase.
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.
