In the world of music, the passage of time is no longer a concern when it is lived in the rhythm of the anniversaries of great composers. The coming year of 2025 is an opportunity to commemorate the genius of Maurice Ravel, marking  his 150th birth anniversary. The new year, 2026, will offer a pretext to focus on the fascinating oeuvre of Hans Werner Henze. Born in 1926, the artist was one of the most important composers of the second half of the 20th century. The NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, will present works by both Ravel and Henze, complementing the French portion of the programme with Hector Berlioz’s Roman Carnival.

A significant role in the history of Henze’s Piano Concerto No. 2 was played by none other than Christoph Eschenbach. It was the current artistic director of the Wrocław Philharmonic who sat at the piano in 1968 to perform the work as soloist during its London premiere. This time, however, the maestro will conduct the composition, with Fil Liotis at the keyboard. The music begins in a nocturne mood, then evolves into a powerful clash between the pianist and the orchestra. The finale features a reference to poetry that is Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129 (Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame / Is lust in action).

The works planned for the second part of the concert will certainly be closer to the cheerful conventions of a New Year’s evening. Hector Berlioz wrote his Roman Carnival at the turn of 1844. He incorporated themes from his opera Benvenuto Cellini into it. The Paris premiere of the work was a fiasco, and the composer, by creating a shorter version of the composition, faced the prospect of wasting his artistic effort. The resulting captivating overture gained considerable popularity. However in the end, the opera gained wider public attention, aided by Franz Liszt, who staged it in Weimar. Ravel’s famous Bolero also resulted from an apparent failure. The composer intended to orchestrate piano works by the Spanish artist Isaac Albéniz to create a ballet for the dancer Ida Rubinstein. However, copyright laws prevented him from realising this intention. Undeterred, Ravel decided to use Iberian inspirations in an original work – a mesmerising stylisation of a popular Southern dance.