This evening, the Red Hall will be filled with the sounds of some of the greatest works by Polish composers of the 20th century. The musicians of the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra will begin their concert with a performance of Orawa by Wojciech Kilar, inspired by highland folklore, which will precede the famous Concerto for String Orchestra by Grażyna Bacewicz and Sinfonietta in E minor op. 7 by Paweł Klecki.

“Orawa is the only piece in which I would not change a single note, even though I looked at it many times,” Wojciech Kilar once recalled. This work closes his cycle of “Tatra”compositions (Krzesany, Kościelec, Siwa mgła), the common feature of which was the artist’s fascination with the music of highlanders. This work delights with its joyful exuberance and fiery temperament, and the traditional melodies woven into it immediately bring to mind the landscape of the Tatra Mountains, which constitute the eastern border of the Orava region. The first performance of Orawa took place in March 1986 in Zakopane.

The Concerto for String Orchestra by Grażyna Bacewicz is undoubtedly one of the most important works by the Polish composer. Hailed as the artist’s “opus magnum”, it is sometimes called her “Ninth Symphony” in reference to the work of Ludwig van Beethoven. Stefan Kisielewski, delighted with the work, described it as a “modern Brandenburg Concerto”. The three-movement piece indeed refers to the Baroque and Classical traditions but is characterised by Bacewicz’s individual style. The outer movements have lively tempos, while the middle Andante delights with its subtle lyricism and colours.

Although he was a world-famous conductor, his talent as a composer remained underestimated. Paweł Klecki – better known as Paul Kletzki – was born in 1900 in Łódź and, like his peers Aleksander Tansman and Artur Rubinstein, he quickly gained international fame. While studying in Berlin in the 1920s, he was noticed by Arturo Toscanini, with whom he later collaborated. His Sinfonietta in E minor op. 7, was his first published work, and although the artist wrote it when he was only twenty-two, it is an example of a composition perfectly thought out in terms of form and means.