Hanna Dys’ organ recital will be an encounter with the music of composers from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. This evening will feature works by Polish and international composers – the concert will begin with the Chant de Noël by Mieczysław Surzyński and end with selected movements from the Planets op. 32 by Gustav Holst, which he once called a “series of atmospheric images”.

Mieczysław Surzyński has gone down in history as the most outstanding representative of the Romantic movement in Polish organ music. Over the years, he has been active as a composer, instrumentalist, excellent improviser, teacher, and organizer of musical life, especially in the pre-war years. Hanna Dys will perform two movements from the cycle Improvisations op.

36 by Surzyński – a small, lively Capriccio and a lyrical Chant de Noël; into the musical layer of the latter Surzyński wove the sounds of the old Polish carol When Christ Is Born. They will precede a fantasy by Feliks Nowowiejski – Christmas in the Ancient St Mary’s Church in Kraków, based on a well-known theme from the Polish carol Amid the Silence of the Night. The Polish part of the repertoire will be completed by a performance of Karol Szymanowski’s Etude in B flat minor op. 4 no. 3, arranged for organ. Composed at the beginning of the twentieth century, it immediately became a popular piece despite its bold harmonic language, polarizing towards atonality, referencing the work of Alexander Scriabin – one of the greatest innovators of music at the turn of the century. It gained fame thanks to Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who included it in his repertoire. Szymanowski was very surprised by such a wide reception of the etude, which he even commented on in one of his letters to his friend, Grzegorz Fitelberg: “It is terrible to compose your Ninth Symphony at such a young age!”

Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 op. 46 is undoubtedly one of the most popular works in the catalogue of Edvard Grieg’s works. It was created in 1888 as music for a drama by Henrik Ibsen. Peer Gynt is in fact a figure of an egoistic lazybones and adventurer banished from his home village, wandering around the world. He is well known to all Norwegians from native legends and fairy tales, and the joyful Morning Mood that begins it and In the Hall of the Mountain King, a finale referring to mysterious Scandinavian sagas, are among the most recognized melodies of classical music. The recital will be crowned by the sounds of three movements from the orchestral suite Planets op. 32 by Gustav Holst. This evening we will hear Mars, Venus and Jupiter arranged for organ. The direct source of inspiration for the work was the texts of Alan Leo, a researcher of the influence of planetary movement on human life and an expert in horoscopes. The piece is full of extra-musical references and intertextual symbolism, remaining remains the most important in the composer’s oeuvre.