The concert inaugurating the new season of Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra on 4 September 2021 at 7.30 p.m. in Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio will be conducted by Marek Wroniszewski. The programme includes works by Johannes Brahms and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov as well as the performance by the violinist Jakub Haufa and cellist Tomasz Strahl, who are among the most outstanding Polish virtuosos of their instruments.
The fairy-tale like, “imagined” Orient has always fascinated Western artists, whilst the publication of successive translations of the masterpiece of Arabic literature (containing tales, legends and anecdotes from various cultural circles of the ancient East) – The Book of One Thousand and One Nights in the 18th and 19th centuries sparkled even a greater interest. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a prominent figure of Russian Neo-Romanticism and a master of orchestral colours and effects, also fell under their spell. His four-movement programmatic orchestral suite Scheherazade composed in 1888, which illustrates selected episodes of the cycle, highlights precisely the colour aspect. The work was a great success and served also in ballet and film adaptations, and to this day is regarded as one of Rimsky’s most popular compositions.
Jakub Haufa and Tomasz Strahl will combine their talents in Johannes Brahms’ late masterpiece, the nostalgic, moving and darkly coloured Double Concerto in A minor, his last (of four) pieces in this genre. It was written to express the renewal of his friendship with the great violinist Josef Joachim, which lasted from his youth and was put to various tests. The violinist would perform the composition together with cellist Robert Hausmann under the baton of the composer.
Concert is co-organized by the National Institute of Music and Dance within the framework of its program „Conductor – resident”.
Piotr Maculewicz
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.
More information at: https://sinfoniaiuventus.pl/en/