On March 2, 2019 at 7:00 p.m., Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw will host a concert of the Sinfonia Iuventus orchestra on the occassion of Bedřich Smetana’s 195th birthday anniversary. The event will be held under the honorary patronage of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Warsaw.
Bedřich Smetana was younger than Stanisław Moniuszko by five years – and despite considerable differences in their biographies, one can notice many analogies in the creative approaches of both composers. Smetana is regarded as the father of the national Czech music, which he understood as a combination of classical music and the heritage of folk culture and praising the history and beauty his homeland. The programme of the concert is a recollection of his greatest works – a comic opera The Bartered Bride (represented with its overture – filled with energy, contrasts, joy and dance), whose significance of Czech culture can be compared to the meaning of The Haunted Manor for the Polish culture. Má Vlast (My Homeland), however, is a set of six independent symphonic poems, recalling old legends and important sites in the Czech history.
The path traced out by Smetana was followed by Antonín Dvořák, composer of the Late Romantic period, particularly acclaimed for his symphonies. The 1889 Symphony No. 8 is filled with joy and optimism, as well as references to national music, though it does not attempt to render any extra-musical narrative. The composition became very successful both in Bohemia and abroad. Until now it remains, along with the famous Symphony No. 9, one of the most performed Dvořák’s symphonies. The concert will be conducted by Piotr Sułkowiski, the General and Artistic Director of the Warmia and Mazury Philharmonic in Olsztyn, who is also a member of the Artistic Council of Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.
More information at: https://sinfoniaiuventus.pl/