The first concert in the series "Generation '51 on their 70th birthday" will be held on 13 November 2021 at 6.00 p.m. at the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Chamber Hall. We will hear the '51 Generation's 40-year acquaintance with the Silesian String Quartet.

Andrzej Krzanowski wrote Salve Regina for choir in 1981, but it was only in 2020, after Grażyna Krzanowska had arranged it for string quartet, that Silesian Quartet played it in the „Silesian misterioso” series, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of St John Paul II’s birth.

Relief for Andrzej is Aleksander Lasoń’s tribute to his friend taken away by premature death. Silesian Quartet first played it in 1995 to celebrate the Chamber Hall of the M. Karłowicz Music School in Katowice being named after Andrzej Krzanowski. A short piece, yet one most moving in its message...

Eugeniusz Knapik’s String Quartet No. 1 of 1980 is today considered a classic of 20th-century music, but in the year of its creation it was a challenge for the musicians to perform and it forced them to get over their habits. Working with the most demanding composer was a true test for them. The form of the piece is twofold, as in Lutosławski’s work, only put together in reverse order. It is dense, dynamic, stormy, to the point of virtuosity, at first. Then, there comes the calm of the song arising from and aiming for the chorale chords. In his author’s commentary, Knapik mentions a reference to the gravity of Beethoven’s masterpieces.

The concert will close with a second performance of Aleksander Lasoń’s Ananda for piano and string quartet commissioned for the 44th Karol Szymanowski’s Music Days in Zakopane.

The first and the last piece of this evening are proof that the ‘51 generation is not an ideology, but wonderful active composers.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Ticket Information: https://nospr.org.pl/pl/kalendarz/kwartet-slaski-tymoteusz-bies-pokolenie-51-na-70-lecie-urodz