Zofia Kiniorska, conductor of the Festival’s second symphonic concert, spent the entire season as Sinfonia Varsovia’s conductor-in-residence, assisting and conducting rehearsals for selected events. Meanwhile, she reached the semifinals of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, and is preparing for the Gustav Mahler Competition in Bamberg. During the evening concert, she will conduct Sinfonia Varsovia in Mieczysław Karłowicz’s cheery symphonic prologue and the most joyful of Antonín Dvořák’s symphonies. In between these works, we will hear the pastoral F-major Duet-Concertino, the last instrumental piece that Richard Strauss composed. To this charming and humorous, and sometimes sarcastic dialogue between clarinet and bassoon, the composer added a fairy-tale scenario in his letters – the bear, clumsy in his dance with the princess, turns out to be a beautiful prince. The soloists include Kateřina Škardová, the Grand Prix winner of the 10th International West Pomeranian Clarinet Festival in Szczecin, and Szymon Michalik, the principal bassoonist of Sinfonia Varsovia.
