The programme of the Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra's concert on 20 November 2021 at 7 p.m. at the Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio will feature a unique Silesian accent in the form of a musical tribute to Prof. Piotr Baron, an outstanding researcher who popularised the music of his region, a respected pedagogue (who lectured, among others, at the State Higher Vocational School in Nysa), the founder and director of the Silesian Composers’ Festival, and a conductor, organist, composer and art therapist, whose premature death on 24 July 2020 was mourned by the regional and national musical community.
The annals of music history include many aristocrats who were gifted with true musical talent and highly valued as composers, including Count Bolko von Hochberg, born into a powerful family that for centuries ruled vast estates in Silesia, among them Książ Castle. In his time, he was a respected author of operas, songs and chamber works (published under the pseudonym Johann Heinrich Franz), who also held important positions, incl. as Intendant of the Royal Theatre Institute in Berlin. His now somewhat forgotten work, maintained in the late-Romantic spirit, is being rediscovered thanks to the efforts of his family and Polish musicologists. A contemporary performance of his Piano Concerto in C minor will be interpreted by respected pianist and chamber musician Zofia Antes, who performs in Poland and abroad and works, among others, at the Institute of Music of the University of Warmia and Mazury.
The Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra conducted by Marek Wroniszewski will also perform Felix Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 21 and Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 1 in C minor.
Piotr Maculewicz
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.
More information: https://sinfoniaiuventus.pl/