MONIUSZKO: Halka - overture
MOZART: Flute and Harp Concerto in C major, K. 299
SZYMANOWSKI: Symphony No. 2, op. 19
Jacques Zoon – flute
Andrea Vigh – harp
Conductor: Łukasz Borowicz
Ambassadors of Polish Music
Let's be honest, if we had to make a list of Polish composers, barely anyone besides Chopin and perhaps his famous contemporaries Penderecki and Lutoslawski would spring to mind. This concert, however, will help extend our list. Lukasz Borowicz, principle conductor of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, introduces us to Poland's two most famous Romantic composers. The 'Polish Erkel', Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-1872), is known as the father of Polish national opera and the creator of Poland's system of music education. Halka, his most famous opera, was first performed in 1848. Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), like so many of his contemporaries, began composing under the influence of Wagner and R. Strauss until he found his own creative path. His colourful, varied melodies, styled after folk music themes, debuted in 1911 with the premiere of his Symphony No. 2. We will hear Mozart's unusual double concerto, composed for a French aristocrat and his daughter, performed by a Hungarian-Dutch pairing. The French gavotte-style closing movement is a reference to the aristocratic 'recipients' of the piece.
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