The 2nd Tadeusz Baird International Music Festival will take place on 26–28 September at the Zielona Góra Philharmonic, an institution that bears the name of the outstanding Polish composer and serves as the initiator of this project. The theme of the 2025 edition is “Baird vs. Neoclassicism”, with the neoclassical movement serving as the guiding motif of the Festival. The program will include a symphonic concert, chamber music concert, piano recital, and accompanying events.
The idea behind the Festival is to promote the music of Tadeusz Baird (1928–1981), co-founder and originator of the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival, a figure still underrepresented in Polish concert and recording repertoire. His music, featured in the program of every concert, will also serve as a pretext for presenting works by composers of various eras and nationalities, with a particular focus on Polish music.
While the first edition focused on vocal lyricism, this year’s program will showcase Baird’s instrumental works as well as neoclassical compositions by Polish composers.
The Festival will open with a concert featuring two orchestras: the Zielona Góra Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jakub Przybycień – an outstanding conductor associated with music centers in Zurich and Barcelona – and the Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, under the baton of Norbert Twórczyński. The program will feature four concertos written for orchestra – a programming concept not previously seen in Poland! The works performed will include: Concerto pour orchestra by Aleksander Tansman, and orchestral concertos by Witold Lutosławski, Tadeusz Baird, and Grażyna Bacewicz. This concert will also mark the official inauguration of the jubilee season celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Zielona Góra Philharmonic.
The second day of the Festival will be centered around two of Baird’s neoclassical miniatures – Two Caprices for Clarinet and Piano and Four Preludes for Bassoon and Piano – as well as a recent, important recording. These chamber works were recorded at the Polish Radio Studio by excellent young artists – Tymoteusz Bies (piano), Andrzej Ciepliński (clarinet), and Szymon Michalik (bassoon) – as part of a joint initiative by the Zielona Góra Philharmonic and the Ryszard Peryt Foundation to document the works of the institution's Patron. These very performers will present Baird’s Caprices and Preludes during the concert. The program will also include works by Tansman, Beethoven, and Francis Poulenc, as well as the world premiere of Talking Love by Katarzyna Kwiecień-Długosz, a contemporary composer based in Zielona Góra, specially commissioned for this occasion.
The culmination of the 2nd edition of the International Festival will be a piano duo recital by the Polish virtuosos Dominika Peszko and Mikołaj Sikała. They will perform works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Poulenc, as well as two compositions by Baird, presented for the first time in arrangements by Rafał Kłoczko, created especially for the Festival.
The Festival is programmed by a specially appointed Artistic Council, chaired by Dr. hab. Barbara Literska, Professor at the University of Zielona Góra – a leading expert on Baird’s music and author of the monumental monograph Tadeusz Baird. Kompozytor, dzieło, recepcja (2012) / Tadeusz Baird. The Composer, His Work, and Its Reception (2020).
The Festival has been recognized by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as a strategic initiative of the Zielona Góra Philharmonic, resulting in the allocation of annual institutional funding for its core organizational needs. Additional financial resources for invited artists and promotional activities are obtained through sponsors, partners, and patrons of the arts.
The Director and originator of the Tadeusz Baird International Music Festival is Dr. Rafał Kłoczko – conductor, composer, music theorist, and Director of the Zielona Góra Philharmonic.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
More information and detailed programme: https://filharmoniazg.pl/ii-festiwal-im-t-bairda/
