On the 23rd of April 2022 at 7 p.m. in the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of the Polish Radio Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra will perform works by Max Bruch, Myroslav Skoryk and Johannes Brahms. Jan Miłosz Zarzycki will be conducting the concert while soloists will be Chopin Piano Duo - Anna Boczar and Bartłomiej Kominek.
The concert will start with Ukraine’s national anthem, Ще не вмерла України ні слава, ні воля (“Ukraine has not yet died, nor her glory, nor her freedom”), the lyrics of which (written by Pavlo Chubynsky) are an intended reference to the incipit of Dąbrowski’s Mazurka.
Myroslav Skoryk, born in 1938, was a prominent figure in Ukraine’s musical environment as a composer and musicologist, as well as an artistic director of the Kyiv Opera. His moving, romantic Melody in A minor will also sound during the evening.
Artists Max Bruch and Johannes Brahms were close in age (incidentally, they knew and respected one another) and style – both represented late Romanticism in German music and its melodic line, which they considered to be the continuation of classical style with their mutual appreciation for cyclical forms with fixed architecture and “absolute” music, free from programmatic appeals. Eduard Hanslick wrote about the Symphony in D major: ‘Symphony No. 2 (…) like the sun, warms connoisseurs and amateurs alike and belongs to all those who long for good music. It radiates healthy freshness and clarity.’
The beautiful, late work by Bruch, Concerto in A minor for two pianos composed in 1912 will be performed by Chopin Piano Duo – an ensemble composed in 2014 of Anna Boczar and Bartłomiej Kominek, both of whom are developing successful solo careers. In 2015, the artists performed the Polish premiere of this concerto (with the Cracow Philharmonic, directed by Daniel Smith).
Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
After Piotr Maculewicz's note
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC