The young English conductor Finnegan Downie Dear is an artist enjoying great acclaim from international music critics. His ticket to a career was the triumph at the International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg in 2020. He learned his craft alongside artists of such stature as Thomas Adès, Sir Simon Rattle and Daniel Harding. During the concert with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, the artist will present a programme reflecting on the vital powers of humans, leading them to discover the world.

Born in 1971, the English composer, conductor and pianist Thomas Adès is one of the most respected figures on the international music scene. During the concert, his achievements will be represented by Polaris (Voyage for Orchestra) from 2010. The title refers to the North Star, formerly central to naval navigation. This skillfully orchestrated work, despite its short duration, creates a suggestive image of a journey through huge, colorful spaces. D’Om le vrai sens is a clarinet concerto by Kaija Saariaho, a Finnish contemporary composer. The title means “the true sense of man” in Old French and was inspired by a series of six tapestries entitled The Lady and the Unicorn, created at the beginning of the 16th century. The names of the individual movements of the concerto correspond to the following tapestries: Hearing, Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste and, the movement representing the enigmatic sixth sense, My Only Desire. The solo part in this work will be performed by the Belgian clarinetist, a student of Sabine Meyer, Annelien Van Wauwe. During the performance of individual fragments of the concerto, the soloist should each time be in a different place of the venue.

The second part of the evening will begin with a succinct, impressive Fanfare from La Péri by Paul Dukas, intended for brass instruments. It will be followed by The Fourth Symphony by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen, written in 1916, subtitled “Inextinguishable”. Nielsen explained that he wanted to use it to express the will to exist, impossible to suppress and stop, the drive and energy associated with it, which is common to all living things. The most famous element of this symphony is the virtuosic battle taking place in the fourth and final movement between two sets of timpani placed at the sides of the stage. This fragment, which makes a great impression on the listeners, requires great virtuosity and precision from the timpanists, and leads to a powerful, optimistic climax.