During the concert of the LutosAir Quintet and Lutosławski Quartet, musicians working under the aegis of the NFM will reach for chamber works written by Polish composers born in the 20th century, for string quartet and wind quintet. The programme includes works by Paweł Mykietyn, Andrzej Krzanowski, Aleksander Lasoń, and Grażyna Bacewicz, the latter acclaimed as Poland’s best woman composer of the 20th century.

The matinée will begin with the Mini-Quintetto for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon by Józef Świder – a light composition with a Neo-classicist character. The work, originally consisting of five movements, must have enjoyed the sentiment of its composer, because a few years after the premiere in 1993, Świder returned to the score, adding two more movements. The quintet functions in this form to this day, captivating with its lightness of expression and radiant sound. Then the musicians will perform the Spring Quintet for wind instruments from the catalogue of works by Aleksander Lasoń – a graduate of Świder’s composition class. The youthful work was premiered in April 1981 at the XXI Poznań Spring by the wind quintet of the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio and Television in Katowice. At a similar time, Marek Stachowski’s Pezzo grazioso was created – a composition in which chamber passages smoothly intertwine with solo parts that are clearly recitative yet maintained in a virtuoso character.

The second part of the concert will feature the Lutosławski Quartet – the artists will present string quartets by Zbigniew Bujarski, Paweł Mykietyn, and Grażyna Bacewicz. The Quartet for Autumn by the first of these composers is a musical tribute to one of the leading Polish musicologists – Mieczysław Tomaszewski. The piece was composed for the 80th birthday celebration of the renowned Chopinologist and was dedicated to him. Paweł Mykietyn’s String Quartet No. 2 was performed for the first time by the legendary Kronos Quartet. In this small-scale work, the key role is played by microtonal sonority, which creates subtle harmonies against the backdrop of intricate rhythmic structures. Thanks to the use of harmonics, the whole piece gains an innovative, intriguing sound. Grażyna Bacewicz’s String Quartet No. 4, written in 1950, is considered the most famous of the artist’s seven string quartets. The element that gives it a charming colour is a folk melody from the canon of Polish folklore. Andrzej Krzanowski’s Reminiscenza is an avant-garde work written towards the end of the artist’s life. As Andrzej Chłopecki, an esteemed musicologist and theoretician, once emphasised, “the whole thing seems mysterious, unrepresentative of the composer’s style to date and in its shape it escapes form, as it were”.