Twenty-year-old violinist Wojciech Niedziółka, a student at the Academy of Music in Łódź, was last year the only Pole who qualified for the second stage of the International H. Wieniawski Violin Competition. During his recital at the National Forum of Music, he will combine the traditional 19th-century virtuoso repertoire with an impressive composition by Krzysztof Penderecki, younger than the other works by about a hundred years. He will be accompanied by the pianist Michał Francuz, who also accompanied the young musician during the Poznań competition.

Only one piece from Niedziółka's Wrocław recital will come from last year's competition programme – the famous rhapsodic Poème op. 25 by Ernest Chausson, written in response to a request from Eugène Ysaÿe to compose a violin concerto. The evening will open with the three-movement Sonata for violin and piano op. 100 by Johannes Brahms, created during a stay in beautiful Swiss Thun at the foot of the Bernese Alps. “There are so many melodies here that you have to be careful not to tread on one,” the composer later recalled this inspiring town.

The legendary Spanish violinist Pablo Sarasate left a number of impressive parlor pieces. Eight years after the premiere of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, the Spanish virtuoso born in Pamplona found in it a graceful inspiration for his violin fantasy – it does justice to the brilliant French opera, but at the same time allows Niedziółka to show off his skills. He will also have many opportunities to show off while playing Krzysztof Penderecki’s Cadenza. The original version of this work from 1984 was intended for viola and referred to the Viola Concerto composed a year earlier by Penderecki. The programme of the performance must of course include a work by Henryk Wieniawski. Wojciech Niedziółka chose a piece written Wieniawski was only nineteen. Perhaps this is why the variations sound so free-spirited that they seem to border on madness.