On March 8, 2018 at 7.30 p.m. in the Katowice headquarters of the National Polish Radio Orchestra there will be a festive chamber music concert during which the musicians of the NOSPR will present string sextets of two great composers: Andrzej Panufnik and Johannes Brahms.
The idea of string sextet "Trains of Thought" (1987) by Andrzej Panufnik refers to the impression of traveling by train. The pulsating rhythm and staccato articulation in a constant tempo mimic the monotonous clatter of wagons in this piece. However, this is only one layer of composition, the monotony of which is compensated by the composer with the diversity of expressive shades of this ostinato. Dry and rough sounds (molto secco, sul ponticello), after a while become milder, playful (scherzando), then again intrusive and even aggressive (energico, intenso), depending on what is happening in the second layer of the song, more human, which expresses a string of thoughts saturated with emotions – from calm and unhurried to more lively and even violent. In the finale of the composition, the sounds are slowly disappearing, falling away in the distance like a receding train. Onomatopoeic ostinato uses in its structure the sound cell E-F-H in various rotations, transpositions and reflections, both in the harmonic and melodic layer of the work.
Sextetext 2 "Song to the Virgin Mary" is Andrzej Panufnik's first piece composed after marrying Camilla Jessel and settling in Twickenham near London. Since their future home was not yet habitable, the composer worked in a nearby Church Of the Virgin Mary. There he wrote his piece – a simple choral song of prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a work inspired by the composer's memories of "Polish villagers praying fervently in a village church." The melodic line refers here both to Gregorian chant and to Polish folk music, mainly through the use of a pentatonic scale, combined with chords with a double, major-minor backround – with a major and a minor third at the same time. In 1969 Panufnik reviewed the work – he introduced a division into 6 voices, and in 1987 he developed it into a song for a string sextet.
String Sextet in B flat major op. 18 No. 1 by Johannes Brahms will be the last piece to complete the programme of the concert.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.
Additional information at: www.nospr.org.pl