Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Grażyna Bacewicz and Kazimierz Serocki published their first scores at PWM Edition. Founded in Kraków in 1945, it was for decades the only such enterprise on the map of Poland. Its eightieth anniversary will be marked by the performances of works by Polish composers active in the 20th and 21st centuries. The concert will also be an opportunity to rediscover the legacy of Wojciech Kilar, as his compositions for flute and string orchestra feature in the programme. 

The concert will begin with the overture to Family Album by Jerzy Kornowicz, an opera with a libretto by Michał Rusinek. The work, performed for the first time in 2023 as part of the NOSPR Festival of Premieres, is in fact a musical illustration of a family portrait presented from the perspective of a carefree childhood full of various adventures. “I decided to become childish for a few weeks and write poems based quite freely on the biographies of my family members, and Mr Jerzy Kornowicz wrote beautiful music for them. It seems to me that my ancestors were quite ordinary. But I am also convinced that even a very ordinary family can be viewed from an extraordinary perspective,” highlights Rusinek. Kornowicz adds that each of the songs included in the opera brings the characters and their audience knowledge about the world and about themselves. 

Siciliana for flute and string orchestra by Wojciech Kilar is a piece written in the 1950s while the composer was still an undergraduate at the State Superior School of Music in Katowice (currently the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music). It was performed for the first time during a student concert in June 1955, directed by the distinguished Polish conductor Karol Stryja. There is a mystery in it, because it is not known whether Siciliana was intended to function independently or as a movement in a larger work. Tomasz Sierant’s interpretation, accompanied by the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, will therefore be a valuable opportunity to rediscover Kilar’s not-so-often-performed work. 

Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil’s El Condor for two marimbas and string orchestra was written for the NFM Leopoldinum in the 1996 as a part of the cycle Thinking of Vivaldi – Spring. Its premiere took place in February 1996 during the Musica Polonica Nova festival. The composer, revealing the main theme of the piece, says: El Condor is not an illustration or a story. It is an impression.”  Threnody Krzysztof Penderecki in memoriam for piano and orchestra by Zygmunt Krauze is a deeply personal tribute to the memory of Penderecki, who passed away five years ago. Its author explains his intentions as follows: “The planned composition is to express the energy, strength and determination that were Penderecki’s creative foundation. At the same time, it expresses the pain of losing a great composer. It is a piece consisting of five movements, referring to the ancient Greek literary form of lament: exordium, laudatio, comploratio, consolatio and exhortatio”. 

The last part of the concert will be Three Pieces in Old Style by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. The work consists of three pieces that differ in terms of tempi and character, and references the aesthetics of Renaissance music through the use of modal scales. The outer movements are in the style of lively dances, while the middle movement is characterised by a nostalgic expression. The structure was perfectly summed up by Tadeusz Zieliński: “These pieces constitute a modest (as if simplified, adapted to the ‘archaic’ theme), but effective and full of charm, sample of this style.”