During the concert of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic under the baton of Michał Klauza, Polish works of the past era will meet the musical present. The first category will be represented by compositions by Władysław Szpilman and Henryk Wars, whose works Michał Klauza has been promoting for a long time, and the second by a new violin concerto by Marcin Markowicz.
For cinema lovers, Władysław Szpilman, the author of Little Overture, is primarily the protagonist of Roman Polański’s The Pianist from 2002. This artist was a prolific composer, creating popular songs and music for films, as well as orchestral pieces in Neoclassical style, drawing on patterns from past eras. Such is the light, cheerful and colourfully orchestrated overture written by Szpilman in 1968. The premiere of Marcin Markowicz’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra will be a surprise for listeners. This artist is the founder and second violinist of the Lutosławski Quartet, and in the years 2006–2019 he was concertmaster of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic. Since 2019 he has been concertmaster of the Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Warsaw. Markowicz is friends with the violinist Jakub Jakowicz, who will play the solo part in the new composition.
The second part of the concert will include The First Symphony by Henryk Wars, written in 1949. Its author was a Polish composer (he was born Henryk Warszawski, and was also known as Henry Vars), pianist and conductor of Jewish origin. Before World War II, he mainly composed popular songs and film music, and was also one of the early promoters of jazz in Poland. Then he settled in Los Angeles and started cooperation with Hollywood film studios. He continued to write music intended for concert performances. His concert output was not popular during his lifetime and was discovered long after his death, in the 1990s. The performance of the fascinating, sonically radical First Symphony will be a reminder of the work of this quite exceptional composer.