Yaroslav Shemet, a talented Polish-Ukrainian conductor, Artistic Director of the Silesian Philharmonic, is Principal Guest Conductor of the Neue Philharmonie Hamburg. The programme of his concert with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic includes works by three composers: Borys Latoszynski, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Karol Szymanowski. Krzysztof Jakowicz will perform with the orchestra.

Borys Latoszynski is considered the father of Ukrainian music and the first widely recognized composer of symphonic music from this country. His achievements include five symphonies, two operas, as well as numerous choral, orchestral and piano works. He was a respected teacher, and among his students there is the prominent Ukrainian composer of our time, Valentyn Silvestrov. Although Latoszynski was attracted to expressionism and advanced compositional techniques, due to the political situation after World War II and pressure from the authorities, he had to simplify his musical language. Yaroslav Shemet will conduct his full of pathos, colorfully orchestrated symphonic poem Unification, written in 1949–1950.

The Violin Concerto in D major KV 211 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a composition from 1775. It was his second work of this genre, written when the composer was only nineteen years old. This work is cheerful, lyrical and devoid of dramatic accents, it also shows the great melodic invention of the artist. The solo part will be performed by an excellent Polish violinist, Krzysztof Jakowicz.

The second part of the concert will feature Karol Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 2 in B flat major written in 1909–1910. This is one of the most outstanding works representing the early phase of the composer’s work, when he was still influenced by the music of Richard Strauss and Max Reger. The premiere took place in 1911 in Warsaw, and the symphony soon sounded in Vienna, Leipzig, Munich and Kraków, where it was enthusiastically received. Although it is composed of two movements, they contain the traditional four symphonic movements. Szymanowski highly appreciated this composition, and in a letter to Zdzisław Jachimecki he wrote: “I must admit that I am a bit presumptuous in terms of its value. By some miracle, while working on it, I managed not to succumb to all the colourful delusions seducing ‘young and inexperienced’ artists and to give pure and uncompromising beauty, as I personally understand it.”