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A Few Questions to Romuald Twardowski
2015-06-17
Today, on June 17th, Romuald Twardowski celebrates 85th birthday. On this occasion we asked him several common and uncommon questions.
The first musical memory...
Pre-war time, the post-bernardine church in Vilnius. THE ORGAN!
My first composition...
Prelude in F major for organ, based on the Polish carol Lulajże Jezuniu (Sleep My Child). Composed at St. John's organ on 11 November 1947.
I'm inspired by...
Poetry, literature, travelling, nature.
The greatest composing challenge...
Creating my own, separate style, based on the synthesis of the New and the Old.
My listeners...
…are people with serious and not "festival” attitude to music. I'm thinking here of the so-called "philharmonic" audience which is "formed" and competent. Berlin, London and Moscow have such audiences…
Tradition or avant-guard?
One does not preclude the other. The future and the present originate from the past.
I usually listen to...
...less and less music. I hardly listen to my own music. I sometimes recall this and that from Stravinsky, Ravel, Bach or Vivaldi. But I usually hum church songs...
If I were not a composer...
...I would become a painter. I have a critical eye, an inborn sense of aesthetics.
I was influenced by...
Stravinsky and Lutosławski.
I would never decide to...
...be a film music composer.
I cannot imagine living without...
...music. Despite all!
I do not like...
Mondays and all kinds of braggarts, ninnies or lunar aesthetes.
I willingly come back to...
Vilnius, the city of my youth.
Food without which I cannot live...
Lithuanian kuldunai!
In my free time...
I read and go for a walk.
Most popular:
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.
It’ s like a game. The memory game, thanks to which you can look at a very ordinary family from an extraordinary perspective. ALBUM RODZINNY [Family album] – an opera by Jerzy Kornowicz with a libretto by Michał Rusinek – is another premiere of the ANAKLASIS label this year. This time, the record brand is expanding its audience to include the youngest listeners. The album will be released on 21st June.
A common memory game that allows us to look at an ordinary family from an unusual perspective. FAMILY ALBUM - an opera by Jerzy Kornowicz based on a libretto by Michał Rusinek - is another premiere of the ANAKLASIS. This time, the audience is expanded to include the youngest of listeners. The album will be released on June 21.