Richard Tognetti, a renowned Australian violinist and artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, returns to Wrocław. Together with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra conducted by Christian Danowicz, he will present interpretations of various works – from one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, through works by Pavel Haas and Witold Lutosławski, who were active in the previous century, to the intriguing composition by Bryce Dessner – an artist belonging to the famous indie rock band The National – which is a tribute to Lutosławski.
Written in the 1950s, Witold Lutosławski’s Musique funebre was created at the initiative of Jan Krenz, a distinguished Polish conductor, who asked for a piece to commemorate Béla Bartók’s 10th death anniversary. Lutosławski willingly undertook the task, but work on the score was significantly delayed, taking him four years. The piece was first performed on 26 March 1958, well after the planned premiere date. The final result also brought a new, important chapter in the artist’s life. “For me, it is the beginning of a new period, the result of long experiences. I tried to create a set of means that would become my own. And this is the first word spoken in this language that is new to me, but by no means the last,” is how Lutosławski recalled his work on the sublime piece. Réponse Lutosławski refers to Lutosławski’s Musique funebre. Its author is Bryce Dessner, a versatile composer, who has collaborated with American pioneers of minimalism in music, such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. “My response to Lutosławski’s music is that he opened a window to an area for me, and then I set off on my own journey. (…) You could say that I wrote eight short poems, although it was Lutosławski who wrote the first line of each of them,” he emphasised in an interview for Poland’s “Dwutygodnik”.
The musicians of the Australian Chamber Orchestra will also perform an undisputed masterpiece, namely the Third Brandenburg Concerto in G major, written by the Leipzig Cantor. The composition, which belongs to the collection originally titled Concerts avec plusieurs instruments (Concerts for various instruments), was written in 1718 and is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular works by Bach. It consists of three movements and is intended for strings: three violins, three violas and three cellos, and an accompanying instrument, performing the basso continuo part. Their parts compete with each other throughout the entire score, until the finale that crowns the concerto. The last piece in the programme will be the vivacious String Quartet “From the Monkey Mountains” by Pavel Haas, a Czech composer, who studied under the watchful eye of Leoš Janáček and is one of the most important composers from the Czech Republic. The origins of the work are suggested by its title – in Czech it refers to the Vysočina region (Bohemian-Moravian Highlands). The quartet, consisting of four movements, entitled Landscape (Krajina), Coach, Coachman and Horse (Kočár, kočí a kůň), The Moon and I...(Měsíc a já...), and Wild Night (Divá noc), is like a collection of atmospheric musical impressions on the landscape of Bohemia and Moravia.
