Time 19:00
Wiltold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio, Modzelewskiego 59, Warsaw
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The overture to the opera Paria is one of the most mature orchestral works by Stanisław Moniuszko. Positioned within the timeline right after the scenic prologue, it is musically closely tied to the opera’s plot, in which the love story serves merely as a pretext to address universal issues concerning social inequalities and injustice. Despite the work’s oriental theme, it is difficult to find Eastern influences in the musical layer – for the goal is not stylization, but a universal message conveyed through brilliant progressions and sweepingly lyrical passages.
No less mesmerizing is the symphonic poem Odwieczne pieśni (Eternal Songs) by Mieczysław Karłowicz, completed in 1906 and first performed a year later in Berlin. The triptych does not have a precise literary program; it is rather an expression of the composer’s personal experiences and deep reflections, which intensified during his journeys through the peaks of the Tatra Mountains. He was then, as he himself claimed, enveloped by a “mighty, eternal breath of omnipresence”‘ from which inspiration flowed to shape and transform musical ideas – a theme of “unsettled longing” full of melancholy and fervor, a cheerful motif of love, and a theme of death referencing an authentic Belarusian funeral song.
Although the concert is devoted to Polish music, the pieces that make up the first part of the program reflect universal themes – both social and spiritual. After the break, however, we will hear a composition dominated by a strong national theme – the Symphony No. 2 in C minor “Elegiac”, completed in 1879, in which Zygmunt Noskowski not only quotes the melody of Dąbrowski’s Mazurka (the national anthem of Poland) in the final movement, but also models the entire composition in an extraordinarily dramatic way, convincingly illustrating the overwhelming longing for independence.
PROGRAM
Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) – Ouverture to the opera Paria (arr. G. Fitelberg)
Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876-1909) – Symphonic Poem Odwieczne pieśni (Eternal Songs) Op. 10
1. Pieśń o wiekuistej tęsknocie
2. Pieśń o miłości i śmierci
3. Pieśń o wszechbycie
Zygmunt Noskowski (1846-1909) – Symphony No. 2 in C minor “Elegiac”
1. Moderato mysterioso – Allegro molto
2. Vivace – Poco tranquillo
3. Elegja. Andante molto sostenuto
4. Finale: „Per aspera ad astra!” Poco adagio – Moderato misterioso
PERFORMERS
THE ORCHESTRA OF THE POLISH ROYAL OPERA
ANTONI WIT CONDUCTOR
Duration: approx. 1 h 45 mins (with an intermission)
