Sinfonia Iuventus 2025/26 Artistic Season Finale

The final concert of the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra's 2025/26 artistic season, conducted by Wojciech Rodek – marking his first season as the Orchestra's director – pairs two masterpieces of the symphonic-concerto repertoire with a piece of profound significance in today's world, namely Hymn to Tolerance by Zygmunt Krauze. During the concert on June 13 at 7.00 pm at the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw, violinist Natalia Dragan will perform the solo part. 

The concert will open with a performance of Zygmunt Krauze’s Hymn to Tolerance. The piece was commissioned by Aleksander Gudzowaty and premiered during the unveiling of the Monument to Tolerance in Jerusalem (2008) by the Israel Camerata Orchestra conducted by Avner Biron. Krauze wrote: "The Hymn to Tolerance is one of many pieces that inherently contain a certain passion related to human existence, to injustice, to cruelty, and to events that I find deeply moving". 

Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 (1878), created in collaboration with Joseph Joachim, combines virtuosity with symphonic scale. It is not merely a showcase for the soloist, but rather a "symphony with concertante violin". This masterpiece of violin repertoire will be performed by Natalia Dragan, a gifted violinist born in 2009 and a top-prize winner in over eighty national and international competitions.

Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra (1943–1944) became emblematic of its era and entered the canon of the most popular 20th-century works. In his late masterpiece, the composer softened his musical language, leaning toward a symmetrical, classicizing form and greater tonal euphony, while maintaining most features of his earlier style, including subtle yet clear references to folklore, the dominance of the rhythmic element, and rich instrumentation. The entire work – shifting from the starkness of the beginning and a dark elegy to the finale – leads toward an affirmation of life.

Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Media patronage over the 2025/26 Sinfonia Iuventus concert season is held by the Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Information about tickets: https://sinfoniaiuventus.pl/