On 19 January 2025 at 12:00, the premiere performance of Dr Piotr Gryska's song cycle "Canzoniere" for mezzo-soprano, cello and piano to words by Francesco Petrarca will take place in the Basilica of St John in Berlin (Johannes-Basilika). The work was composed in April 2024, on the 650th anniversary of the death of the outstanding poet Francesco Petrarca, for mezzo-soprano Weronika Włodarczyk. The Polish premiere of the work will take place on 30 January 2025 at 5 p.m. at the Palace of the Pomeranian Lands in Szczecin.
The cycle includes ten canzonier pieces, in which the low female voice dialogues with the cello (here Antoni Majewski, a doctoral student at the Instrumental Department of the Academy of Art in Szczecin in the class of Professor Tomasz Szczęsny), and the whole sound is complemented by the piano, whose part is performed by Agnieszka Barańska. The whole is under the organisational and content supervision of Professor Sylwia Burnicka-Kalischewska.
The basis of the composition was a collection of 366 poems by Francesco Petrarca under the same title ‘Canzoniere’, consisting mostly of famous sonnets celebrating love for the poet's dearest, Laura. The sonnets' message has not lost its relevance over the centuries, providing inspiration for countless composers, including Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt and Benjamin Britten.
The Szczecin composer Dr Piotr Gryska is the first Polish artist to undertake the task of setting to music the lyrics of Francesco Petrarca in the original language. Angelo Sollano's translations of the poetry proved invaluable in the project.
The organisers of the project are: Academy of Art in Szczecin, Musikverein BEL CANTO Ueckermünde e.V. Music Association and the Association of First Class Initiatives.
The Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC has assumed media patronage.
