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New Works by Kilar and Bujarski
2003-11-13
Lament for unaccompanied choir by Wojciech Kilar and Peirenefor symphony orchestra by Zbigniew Bujarski were premiered last weekend in the concert halls of Warsaw and Cracow.
On 7 November in the Concert Hall of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw the National Philharmonic Choir directed by Henryk Wojnarowski presented the most recent composition by Wojciech Kilar to the public – Lament. The composer dedicated the work to the National Philharmonic Choir on the 50th anniversary of establishing the ensemble. This second, so far, piece by Wojciech Kilar for unaccompanied choir (after Agnus Dei) makes use of a 15th-century lament, which has been preserved in a manuscript kept in Wrocław. Rich in harmonic turns and ostinato meditations, typical of Kilar, the composition is already considered by the composer to be one of his best compositions. PWM Edition had prepared, just for that concert, a special edition of twelve numbered copies of the Lament. The composer himself received the copy with the first number, and the National Philharmonic Choir – that with the second number.
The second of the premiered works, Peirene by Zbigniew Bujarski, was presented on 7 and 8 November in the concert hall of the Cracow Philharmonic by the orchestra conducted by Tomasz Bugaj. The premiere forms part of the celebrations of the 70th birthday of Zbigniew Bujarski. The composer talked about his new composition in this way: „The title of my newest work – Peirene – derives from the name of a mythical character. It is a less known myth, in which I have found references to the creative process, namely Belarofont tries to tame Pegasus; he fails and gets thrown down from its back and killed. Pegasus cannot be tamed. We, too, mount such a Pegasus every day – for me it is a symbol of the essence of culture. Artists want to mount Pegasus, just as everyone does, after all, but it is an unattainable absolute. Everybody is defeated. But as in the myth, in which there are springs left after Belarofont and Pereine, flowing up to now (and they will certainly flow for subsequent millenia), so in both artistic and everyday creativity, despite the seeming defeat, something remains. Thus entire culture consists of the entire creative output, that which is better and that which is worse. The essence of creativity is pursuit of aim, but with the awareness that it cannot be realised: the absolute is simply impossible to attain.
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