News
FOCUS! Festival - Polish Music in New York
2011-01-18
A huge festival of Polish music starts this Saturday in New York Festival Polish Modern: New Directions in Polish Music Since 1945
A huge festival of Polish music begins this Saturday in New York.
Juilliard in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York presents FOCUS! Festival Polish Modern: New Directions in Polish Music Since 1945. The composers presented on the FOCUS! festival represent several generations and a broad range of styles from Krysztof Penderecki, Boguslaw Schaeffer, Kazimierz Serocki and others born before the mid-1930s; to composers including Krysztof Knittel, Aleksander Lason, Marian Sawa, and Stanislaw Moryto from the 1940s; to Pawel Szymanski, Tadeusz Wielecki, and those born ten years later; and Pawel Mykietyn, Aleksandra Gryka, Wojciech Zimowit Zych, and the 1970s generation. The festival opens with the New Juilliard Ensemble, conducted by founder Joel Sachs, performing works by Grazyna Bacewicz, Wojciech Kilar, Zygmunt Krauze, Elzbieta Sikora, and Tadeusz Wielecki. The closing concert, performed by the Juilliard Orchestra and led by conductor Jeffrey Milarsky, features a musical Portrait of Witold Lutoslawski, one of the 20th centurys major composers. The program includes Lutoslawskis Overture for Strings, Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Partita for Violin and Orchestra, and the Symphony No. 4. On Monday, January 24 through Thursday, January 27, the FOCUS! festival presents four concerts of chamber and solo works by contemporary Polish composers, performed by Juilliard students at the Schools Paul Hall. Other highlights of the festival include a film screening and a panel discussion about contemporary music in Poland with editor-in-chief of the Polish Music Publishing House and program director of the Polish Music Festival, Andrzej Kosowski; president of the Polish Composers Union, Jerzy Kornowicz; composer Elzbieta Sikora; and director of the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Tadeusz Wielecki, moderated by Joel Sachs.
Programme:
Saturday, January 22, 8:00 PM
Alice Tully Hall
New Juilliard Ensemble
Joel Sachs, founding director and conductor
Grażyna Bacewicz, Contradizione (1966)
Tadeusz Wielecki, The Time of Stones (2002)
Wojciech Kilar, Choral Prelude (1988)
Zygmunt Krauze, Terra Incognita (1994)
Elżbieta Sikora, Canzona (1995)
Monday, January 24, 8:00 PM
Paul Recital Hall
Krzysztof Penderecki, Capriccio, for cello (1966)
Tomasz Sikorski, Euphonia, for piano (1982)
Kazimierz Serocki, Swinging Music, for clarinet, double bass, trombone, and piano (1970)
Marian Sawa, Ecce Lignum Crucis, for organ (1986)
Agata Zubel, Piece TBD
Wojciech Blażejczyk, Interlunium, for guitar (2007)
Marta Ptaszynska, Mancala, for two violins (1997)
Marek Stachowski, Musica Festeggiante, for string quartet (1995)
Tuesday, January 25, 7:00 PM
Panel discussion with composers Zygmunt Krauze and Elzbieta Sikora, Warsaw Autumn Festival director Tadeusz Wielecki, Editor-in-Chief of the Polish Music Publishing House and programme director of the Polish Music Festival Andrzej Kosowski, and composer of electronic music Lukasz Szalankiewicz. The panel will be moderated by Joel Sachs.
Tuesday, January 25, 8:00 PM
Paul Recital Hall
Paweł Mykietyn, Sonata for Cello (2006)
Hanna Kulenty, Music for Brass No. 3 OR NO. 4 TBD (19 )
Aleksander Lasoń, String Quartet No.7 (2007)
Paweł Szymański, Through the Looking Glass III, for harpsichord (1994)
Marcel Chyrzyński, ForMS, for cello (2001)
Jakub Ciupiński, Edo, for violin and electronic sounds (2010)
Witold Szalonek, Toccata and Chorale, for organ (1988)
Wednesday, January 26, 8:00 PM
Paul Recital Hall
Andrzej Krzanowski, Relief V, for cello (1986)
Kazimierz Serocki, A piacere, for piano (1962-63)
Aleksandra Gryka, Piece TBD
Aleksander Nowak, Piece TBD
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, String Quartet No. 1, “Already it is Dusk” (1986)
Bogusław Schaeffer, Sonata IV, “Winter,” from The Four Seasons, for organ (1986)
Thursday, January 27, 7:00 PM
Paul Recital Hall
Electronic Music and Film: a Brief View
Krzysztof Knittel, The Conqueror Worm (1976)
Another composer TBD
David Bickerstaff and Lukasz Szalankiewicz, Film: The Henge: In Search of the Nazi Bell (2010)
8:00 PM
Eugeniusz Knapik, Filo d’Arianna, for cello (2005)
Joanna Bruzdowicz, Erotiques, for piano (1966)
Tadeusz Baird, Play, for string quartet (1971)
Stanisław Moryto, Five Songs on texts by Elias Rajzman, for mezzo-soprano and piano (2002 )
Wojciech Ziemowit Zych, Selections from Homage a Gyorgy Kurtag, for violin and bass clarinet (2005)
Jerzy Kornowicz, The Shapes of the Elements, for harpsichord and tape (2000)
Augustyn Bloch, Geige und Orgel, for violin and organ (1988)
Friday, January 28, 8:00 PM
Alice Tully Hall
A Portrait of Witold Lutosławski
Juilliard Orchestra
Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor
Overture for Strings (1949)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1970)
Partita (1988)
Symphony no. 4 (1988-92)
more about Festival: http://www.polishculture-nyc.org/
Most popular:
FOREFATHERS’ EVE by High Definition Quartet, a mesmerising fusion of jazz, ambient, and electronics, will also be available on a gramophone record as of 17th March. The album features a galaxy of experimental music stars and will be released in the REVISIONS series under the ANAKLASIS label, as the second vinyl in that label’s catalogue. Apart from the Quartet, this release brings together such world-famous giants of ambient as William Basinski, Krzysztof Knittel, Robert Rich, Christian Fennesz, and Igor Boxx of Skalpel Duo.
The Polish Music Library is the youngest member of the top flight of Polish libraries, exceptional in terms of its collection and unrivalled for accessibility. It is maintained by PWM Edition, the biggest Polish publisher of sheet music and books about music, which thanks to its international prestige effectively promotes the output of Polish composers around the world. PWM sums up this project, which has been realised since 2017, with an attractive animation presenting the process through which its resources have been digitised.
Does music call for gender equality? It can surely defend itself. Nonetheless, the artistic advantages of excellent present-day women-composers and their eminent predecessors are worthy of being noticed and highlighted. Women have their separate and distinctive voice in Polish music. In recognition of the need to acknowledge that voice, on 29th January ANAKLASIS will release the CD POLISH HEROINES OF MUSIC, comprising orchestral works by Elżbieta Sikora, Hanna Kulenty, Grażyna Bacewicz, and Agata Zubel.
A panorama of compositional output combining Polish and Yiddish inter-war hits with sorrowful, despairing tangos from the Ghetto. The disc Bajgelman. Get to Tango represents a twenty-first-century take on the output of the outstanding musician Dawid Bajgelman, from Łódź. These arrangements and reworkings of selected works by one of the greatest composers of Jewish theatre music were produced by the outstanding musician and composer Jarosław Bester. The album comes out on 11 December.
The ANAKLASIS record label, created by PWM just one year ago (on 22 November 2019), already boasts sixteen albums, and it shows no signs of slowing down, with further releases announced.
PWM Edition has launched a campaign and an international educational project, which brings the works by Polish composers closer to the audiences worldwide. ‘Music from Chopin’s Land’ encompasses more than just pieces by Chopin – it also means Paderewski, Szymanowska, Moniuszko, Kilar, Kurpiński and many other composers.
On 7 November 2020, during a gala broadcast on TVP Kultura, the laureates of the 10th edition of the Coryphaeus of Polish Music awards were announced. The award for Event of the Year went to the premiere of Aleksander Nowak’s opera Drach. Dramma per musica, given at the AUKSODRONE festival. Aleksander Nowak’s work, to a libretto by Szczepan Twardoch based on his heralded novel, was rewarded for ‘emphasising local dimensions in universal processes, for the strength of its musical and cultural message’.
Paderewski was a great composer. Herdzin is a great improviser. The fusion of the worlds of these two musical giants has given rise to a new phenomenon, which we share with you today. On the 160th anniversary of the birth of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, it is time to prick up our ears to the most beautiful impressions on his music.
On 30 September, the call for applications for the International Composition Contest for Wind Orchestra Warsaw Wind Ensemble Composition Contest 2020 was closed. From almost 50 applications, the jury selected seven laureates and distinguished five compositions.
In the year of the exceptional jubilee, the composer's 90 birthday, a unique album is published in the ANAKLASIS catalogue, devoted to the chamber vocal and instrumental works of Twardowski. They are performed by the world-famous bass-baritone, Tomasz Konieczny, and an outstanding pianist, Lech Napierała.