The new edition of Sinfonia Varsovia’s series showcasing noteworthy compositions recently written in Poland in the context of music of the 20th century opens with works written by such personalities as Agata Zubel, Emil Młynarski and Luciano Berio. The concert takes place on 11 January in the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw with Adam Siebers as soloist and Wilson Hermanto conducting.
Agata Zubel’s Fireworks (2018) is the composer’s musical look at 100 years of the Polish nation – its traditions and cultural context in the widest sense of the term. The eight minute work was written for an expanded symphony orchestra and is filled with fireworks of freely combined musical thoughts and sound impressions and reminiscences. The work garnered widespread acclaim around the world and was performed, among others in London’s Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms Festival and in the Berlin Konzerthaus. In August 2018 Agata Zubel received the European Composer Award for Fireworks.
The 100th anniversary of the first performance of Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major, written by Emil Młynarski – renowned violinist, conductor, composer and promoter of musical life in Warsaw provides a reason for a look back at Poland’s two decades between the world wars. The Concerto lets us observe changes taking place in how composers expressed themselves during the past century,
so that we can better understand the context for composition of new Polish music. Looking back at the European music tradition, with virtuoso writing for the soloist reminiscent of Wieniawski’s concertos, the work will be performed by excellent young generation violinist Adam Siebers, who is also the 2nd concert master of Sinfonia Varsovia.
The programme also includes Rendering (1989), written by Italian composer Luciano Berio. The origins of the work are connected with the discovery in 1970 of early drafts of the unfinished tenth Symphony in D major by Franz Schubert, which form the foundation for Berio’s work. Rendering is in three parts and boasts a wealth of polyphonic writing that Schubert explored so eagerly in the last years of his life. Gaps in the score are filled by quotes from other works written by the Romantic composer and by extant manuscripts of the composer’s contrapuntal exercises. The first performance of the work took place exactly 30 years ago in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
Sinfonia Varsovia will be conducted by Wilson Hermanto, who in 2017 became the 1st guest conductor of the Cameristi della Scala orchestra in Milan.
The concert will be preceded by a meeting with Agata Zubel, at 6:00 p.m. The discussion will be hosted by Jacek Hawryluk.
