Founded less than two decades ago, the Orava Quartet has been hailed by The Australian as “the future of Australian chamber music”. The name of the ensemble refers to the famous work by Wojciech Kilar, but also to the origins of the quartet’s musicians: violinist Daniel Kowalik and cellist Karol Kowalik – Polish instrumentalists currently active in Brisbane on the east coast of Australia. Together with David Dalseno (violin) and Thomas Chawner (viola), they will present a wide range of repertoire intended for string quartet. They will conclude their meeting with the Wrocław audience with a performance of the Piano Quintet in E flat major op.  44 by a leading composer of the Romantic era, Robert Schumann, with Łukasz Krupiński on the piano.  

The concert will begin with the String Quartet No. 2 “Spiski” op. 33 by Sławomir Czarnecki – a Polish artist active today. His composition teachers included one of the most versatile figures in the history of 20th-century music, Olivier Messiaen, known as a mystic among composers. The experience he gained undoubtedly broadened Czarnecki’s perspective, and he soon began to seek his own, individual voice. An important aspect of his achievements has been, among other things, a creative use of folklore, especially patterns known from the music of the Podhale and Spisz highlanders, which is highlighted in this quartet from 1997. This will not be the only Polish work in the concert programme, as Krzysztof Penderecki’s String Quartet No. 3 “Leaves of an Unwritten Diary” will also be performed, created over a decade later. Its unconventional, one-movement structure served as the basis for a musical dialogue touching on themes from Penderecki’s past. This quartet is considered to be a sentimental journey for the author, and at the same time one of the most personal and reflective compositions in Penderecki’s legacy.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s interest in the string quartet began at the end of the 18th century. His first works of this genre were published as opus 18. The composer dedicated them to his patron, Prince Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz, to whom he also dedicated many other excellent works over the years, such as the Symphony No. 3 in E flat major  “Eroica” or Symphony No. 5 in C minor. The opus 18 also includes the radiant String Quartet in F major, in which Beethoven intertwines spirited, euphoric musical thoughts with motifs characterised by a more lyrical sound. The concert will be crowned with the Piano Quintet in E flat major op. 44 by Robert Schumann. It was composed in the first years of his happy marriage to pianist and composer Clara Wieck. She was the dedicatee and also took part in the premiere at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in January 1843. The quintet is deemed a perfectly thought-out piece, a musical jewel of romantic ecstasy. Enthusiastically received by the audience, it is one of the greatest Romantic quintets, a genre taken up with gusto by such composers as Johannes Brahms and César Franck.