Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie, one of the oldest and most respected orchestras in Germany, founded in 1833, will grace Wrocław together with the excellent Fauré Quartett piano quartet, whose line-up has remained unchanged for twenty-eight years. The musicians will be led by the German Japanese conductor Elias Grandy, who has been Artistic Director of the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg for the last eight years. The concert programme features works by Grażyna Bacewicz and Aleksander Tansman and will be crowned with Anton Bruckner’s monumental Fifth Symphony, called Fantastique by the composer.
Listening to the energetic Overture for Symphony Orchestra, it is hard to believe that Grażyna Bacewicz composed it in 1943 in the grim reality of German-occupied Warsaw. With this in mind, some people attribute the author’s intention to lift the spirits of Poles and even see the letter “V” – the sign of victory – encoded in the piece using... Morse code. Another Polish composer – Aleksander Tansman – spent the years of World War II in the United States, because he had to flee from France due to his Jewish origin. However, he had already been inspired by American music, which he had the opportunity to encounter at its sources, while travelling across the Atlantic as a pianist and conductor. This is evidenced by the Third Concertante Symphony written in 1931. The second part of the work clearly demonstrates its author’s fascination with the achievements of George Gershwin.
After the intermission, the light, Neoclassical works by Polish composers will be complemented by the monumental, late-Romantic symphony of Anton Bruckner. His fifth symphony has been given several nicknames – such as “medieval”, “Catholic”, “chorale” and “tragic”. The composer not only coined the adjective “fantastique”, but also referred to it as a “masterful contrapuntal work”. Bearing in mind that each of these terms reveals some part of the mystery of this wonderful work, one of the longest in Bruckner’s achievements, while listening, it is worth devoting yourself solely to its contemplation without looking for any names.
